Schedule Mar 15, 2013
Optoelectrical Sisyphus Cooling of Polyatomic Molecules
Martin Zeppenfeld (MPQ)

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).



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