Zeeman-Sisyphus Deceleration for Heavy Molecules with Perturbed Excited-State Structure

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates Zeeman-Sisyphus deceleration of YbOH molecules using magnetic fields and optical transitions, effectively decelerating molecules with minimal photon scattering despite complex excited-state structures.

Contribution

It introduces a modified Zeeman-Sisyphus deceleration technique that overcomes excited-state perturbations in heavy molecules like YbOH.

Findings

Decelerated YbOH molecules with only ~10 photons scattered

Identified methods to handle excited-state perturbations

Achieved effective molecular slowing with magnetic and optical methods

Abstract

We demonstrate and characterize Zeeman-Sisyphus (ZS) deceleration of a beam of ytterbium monohydroxide (YbOH). Our method uses a combination of large magnetic fields ($\sim$ 2.5 T) and optical spin-flip transitions to decelerate molecules while scattering only $\sim$ 10 photons per molecule. We study the challenges associated with the presence of internal molecular perturbations among the excited electronic states and discuss the methods used to overcome these challenges, including a modified ZS decelerator using microwave and optical transitions.