Molecular vibrational cooling by optical pumping with shaped femtosecond pulses

Year: 2009

Authors: Sofikitis D., Weber S., Fioretti A., Horchani R., Allegrini M., Chatel B., Comparat D., Pillet P.

Autors Affiliation: Laboratoire Aimé Cotton, CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, Bât. 505, 91405 Orsay, France; Laboratoire Collisions, Agrégats, Réactivité (UMR 5589, CNRS—Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse 3), IRSAMC, Toulouse, France; CNISM, Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Pisa, Largo Pontecorvo, 3 56127 Pisa, Italy

Abstract: Some of us have recently reported (Viteau et al 2008 Science 321 232-4) vibrational cooling of translationally cold Cs(2) molecules into the lowest vibrational level v = 0 of the singlet X(1)Sigma(g) ground electronic state. Starting from a sample of cold molecules produced in a collection of vibrational levels of the ground state, our method was based on repeated optical pumping by laser light with a spectrum broad enough to excite all populated vibrational levels but frequency-limited in such a way to eliminate transitions from v = 0 level, in which molecules accumulate. In this paper, this method is generalized to accumulate molecules into an arbitrary selected \’target\’ vibrational level. It is implemented by using ultrashort pulse shaping techniques based on liquid crystal spatial light modulator. In particular, a large fraction of the initially present molecules is transferred into a selected vibrational level such as v = 1, 2 and 7. Limitations of the method as well as the possible extension to rotational cooling are also discussed.

Journal/Review: NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS

Volume: 11      Pages from: 055037  to: 055037

More Information: This work is supported by the \’Institut Francilien de Recherche sur les Atomes Froids\'(IFRAF) and (in Toulouse) by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (Contract ANR-06-BLAN-0004) and the Del Duca foundation. MA thanks the EC-Network EMALI. We thank Nadia Bouloufa and Olivier Dulieu for providing us with the FC calculations, and Matthieu Viteau and Amodsen Chotia for the previous realization of part of the experimental set-up.
KeyWords: cold molecules; optical pumping; vibrational cooling; laser cooling; free polarization spectroscopy
DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/11/5/055037

Citations: 30
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