3D Magneto-Optical Trap of Yttrium Monoxide

Alejandra L. Collopy, Shiqian Ding, Yewei Wu, Ian A. Finneran, Loïc Anderegg, Benjamin L. Augenbraun, John M. Doyle, and Jun Ye

Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 213201 – Published 21 November 2018

Abstract

We report three-dimensional trapping of an oxide molecule (YO), using a radio-frequency magneto-optical trap (MOT). The total number of molecules trapped is $\sim 1.5 \times 10^{4}$ , with a temperature of 4.1(5) mK. This diversifies the frontier of molecules that are laser coolable and paves the way for the second-stage narrow-line cooling in this molecule to the microkelvin regime. Futhermore, the new challenges of creating a 3D MOT of YO resolved here indicate that MOTs of more complex nonlinear molecules should be feasible as well.

Received 2 August 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.213201

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Cold and ultracold molecules Cooling & trapping Molecule trapping & guiding

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

Alejandra L. Collopy¹, Shiqian Ding¹, Yewei Wu¹, Ian A. Finneran¹, Loïc Anderegg², Benjamin L. Augenbraun², John M. Doyle², and Jun Ye¹

¹JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA
²Department of Physics and Center for Ultracold Atoms, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA