Magneto-optical trapping and sub-Doppler cooling of a polyatomic molecule

Article

关键词: BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION;    GAS;    BEAM;    COLD;   

DOI  :  10.1038/s41586-022-04620-5

来源: SCIE

【 摘 要 】

Laser cooling and trapping(1,2), and magneto-optical trapping methods in particular(2), have enabled groundbreaking advances in science, including Bose-Einstein condensation(3-5), quantum computation with neutral atoms(6,7) and high-precision optical clocks(8). Recently, magneto-optical traps (MOTs) of diatomic molecules have been demonstrated(9-12), providing access to research in quantum simulation(13) and searches for physics beyond the standard model(14). Compared with diatomic molecules, polyatomic molecules have distinct rotational and vibrational degrees of freedomthat promise a variety of transformational possibilities. For example, ultracold polyatomic molecules would be uniquely suited to applications in quantum computation and simulation(15-17), ultracold collisions(18), quantum chemistry(19) and beyond-the-standard-model searches(20,21). However, the complexity of these molecules has so far precluded the realization of MOTs for polyatomic species. Here we demonstrate magneto-optical trapping of a polyatomic molecule, calcium monohydroxide (CaOH). After trapping, the molecules are laser cooled in a blue-detuned optical molasses to a temperature of 110 mu K, which is below the Doppler cooling limit. The temperatures and densities achieved here make CaOH a viable candidate for a wide variety of quantum science applications, including quantum simulation and computation using optical tweezer arrays(15,17,22,23). This work also suggests that laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of many other polyatomic species(24-27) will be bothfeasible and practical.

【 授权许可】

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