Quantum 2025 – wissenschaftliches Programm
Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe
MON: Monday Contributed Sessions
MON 5: Optical Quantum Devices
MON 5.1: Vortrag
Montag, 8. September 2025, 14:15–14:30, ZHG006
Magneto-optical trap of aluminium monofluoride — •Jose Eduardo Padilla-Castillo1, Jionghao Cai1, Russell Thomas1, Sebastian Kray1, Boris Sartakov1, Stefan Truppe2, Gerard Meijer1, and Sidney Wright1 — 1Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, 14195 Berlin, Germany — 2Centre for Cold Matter, Imperial College, SW7 2AZ London, UK
Despite impressive progress in direct laser cooling of molecules, magneto-optical trapping has thus far been restricted to species with spin-doublet electronic ground states. These molecules are chemically reactive and only support a simple laser cooling scheme when exciting from the first rotationally excited level of the ground state.
In this talk, we will present the first magneto-optical trap (MOT) of the diatomic molecule aluminium monofluoride (AlF). This 1Σ+ ground state molecule is amongst the most deeply bound molecules known, and even survives collision with vacuum walls of our experiment. Despite the challenging laser wavelengths required for the MOT (λ= 227.5 - 232 nm), we take advantage of the intense A1Π←X1Σ+ transition in AlF, which allows trapping three different rotationally excited levels of the ground via their respective Q(J) lines.
Our results set a new record for the shortest wavelength MOT, narrowly surpassing the 18 year-old milestone set by atomic Cd (λ= 228.9 nm). Similar to Cd, AlF possesses a spin-forbidden transition between its two lowest spin-singlet and triplet states. Magneto-optical trapping is a key step towards precise spectroscopy and control of the molecule via this narrow, ultraviolet transition.
Keywords: Deep ultraviolet lasers; Aluminium monofluoride (AlF); Laser cooling of molecules; Magneto-optical trap; Spin-forbidden transition