Radio Frequency Magneto-Optical Trapping of CaF with High Density

Abstract

We demonstrate significantly improved magneto-optical trapping of molecules using a very slow cryogenic beam source and either rf modulated or dc magnetic fields. The rf magneto-optical trap (MOT) confines 1.0(3)x$10^5$ CaF molecules at a density of 7(3)x$10^6$cm$^{−3}$, which is an order of magnitude greater than previous molecular MOTs. Near Doppler-limited temperatures of 340(20)uK are attained. The achieved density enables future work to directly load optical tweezers and create optical arrays for quantum simulation.

Journal
Physical Review Letters 119, 103201 (2017) (Editors’ Suggestion)