Ultracold molecules for measuring the electron's electric dipole moment

TL;DR

This paper reports successful sub-Doppler laser cooling of YbF molecules to 100 μK, advancing the development of ultracold molecules for precise measurements of the electron's electric dipole moment.

Contribution

It demonstrates effective sub-Doppler cooling of YbF molecules and compares different cooling mechanisms, aiding future electron EDM experiments.

Findings

Achieved 100 μK cooling temperature for YbF molecules

Compared magnetically-assisted and polarization-gradient cooling methods

Modeling aligns well with experimental data

Abstract

We demonstrate one-dimensional sub-Doppler laser cooling of a beam of YbF molecules to 100 $\mu$K. This is a key step towards a measurement of the electron's electric dipole moment using ultracold molecules. We compare the effectiveness of magnetically-assisted and polarization-gradient sub-Doppler cooling mechanisms. We model the experiment and find good agreement with our data.