A conveyor-belt magneto-optical trap of CaF

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel conveyor-belt magneto-optical trap for CaF molecules, achieving record-high densities and enabling advanced ultracold molecule applications.

Contribution

It introduces a new conveyor-belt MOT technique for CaF molecules, significantly increasing density and phase-space density compared to previous methods.

Findings

Achieved a peak density of 3.6×10^{10} cm^{-3} in CaF MOT

Trapped up to 2.6×10^4 molecules at 14 μK

Demonstrated a 600-fold increase in density over conventional MOTs

Abstract

We report the experimental realization of a conveyor-belt magneto-optical trap for calcium monofluoride (CaF) molecules. The obtained highly-compressed cloud has a mean radius of 64(5) $\mu$m and a peak number density of $3.6(5) \times 10^{10}$ cm$^{-3}$, a 600-fold increase over the conventional red-detuned MOTs of CaF, and the densest molecular MOT observed to date. Subsequent loading of these molecules into an optical dipole trap yields up to $2.6 \times 10^4$ trapped molecules at a temperature of 14(2) $\mu$K with a peak phase-space density of $\sim 2.4 \times 10^{-6}$. This opens new possibilities for a range of applications utilizing high-density, optically trapped ultracold molecules.