Laser radiation pressure slowing of a molecular beam

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the use of laser radiation pressure to slow a molecular beam of SrF molecules, achieving velocities suitable for trapping and advancing the development of ultracold molecular samples.

Contribution

It introduces a method to decelerate molecular beams using radiative force, bridging the velocity gap for trap loading, and shows initial results of velocity compression.

Findings

Decelerated SrF molecules from ~140 m/s to below 50 m/s

Scattered approximately 10,000 photons per molecule during slowing

Observed longitudinal velocity compression

Abstract

There is substantial interest in producing samples of ultracold molecules for possible applications in quantum computation, quantum simulation of condensed matter systems, precision measurements, controlled chemistry, and high precision spectroscopy. A crucial step to obtaining large samples of ultracold, trapped molecules is developing a means to bridge the gap between typical molecular source velocities (~150-600 m/s) and velocities for which trap loading or confinement is possible (~5-20 m/s). Here we show deceleration of a beam of neutral strontium monofluoride (SrF) molecules using radiative force. Under certain conditions, the deceleration results in a substantial flux of molecules with velocities <50 m/s. The observed slowing, from ~140 m/s, corresponds to scattering ~10000 photons. We also observe longitudinal velocity compression under different conditions. Combined with molecular laser cooling techniques, this lays the groundwork to create slow and cold molecular beams suitable for trap loading.