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Magneto-Optical Trapping and Sub-Doppler Cooling of a Polyatomic Molecule (2112.08349v1)
Published 15 Dec 2021 in physics.atom-ph
Abstract: We report magneto-optical trapping (MOT) of a polyatomic molecule, calcium monohydroxide (CaOH). The MOT contains $2.0(5)\times 104$ CaOH molecules at a peak density of $3.0(8)\times10{6}$ cm${-3}$. CaOH molecules are further sub-Doppler laser cooled in an optical molasses, to a temperature of 110(4) $\mu$K. The temperatures and densities achieved here make CaOH a viable candidate for a wide variety of quantum science applications, including the creation of optical tweezer arrays of CaOH molecules. This work also suggests that laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of many other polyatomic species will be both feasible and practical.