M. Zeppenfeld, B.G.U. Englert, R. Glöckner, A. Prehn, M. Ibrügger, G. Rempe
Many of the fascinating applications of cold and ultracold polar moleculesrequire chemically diverse species. Here, optoelectrical Sisyphuscooling[1] presents a unique opportunity to even cool ensembles ofpolyatomic molecules. Using only a single infrared laser along withadditional microwave and radio frequencies, a wide range of moleculespecies stored in an electric trap[2] can be cooled. As a first result[3],we have achieved a temperature reduction by more than an order ofmagnitude to 29 mK of about a million CH3F molecules. Ongoing improvementswill allow cooling to sub-mK temperatures and beyond, opening wide-rangingopportunities for fundamental studies with polyatomic molecules atultracold temperatures.
[1] M. Zeppenfeld et. al., Phys. Rev. A 80, 041401 (2009).
[2] B.G.U. Englert et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 263003 (2011).
[3] M. Zeppenfeld et al., Nature 491, 570-573 (2012).