Laser Cooling of Molecules
Pushing the Frontiers of Atomic Physics - Proceedings of the XXI International Conference on Atomic Physics, 2009
ABSTRACT The cold-molecules field is very active trying to transfer laser cooling techniques from... more ABSTRACT The cold-molecules field is very active trying to transfer laser cooling techniques from atoms to molecules. Photoassociation of cold atoms, followed by spontaneous emission of the electronically excited molecules, produces translationally cold molecules, but in several vibrational levels v of the ground state. We have recently shown that vibrational cooling can be obtained by optical pumping with a shaped broadband femtosecond laser. The broadband laser electronically excites the molecules, leading via a few absorption - spontaneous emission cycles to a redistribution of the vibrational population in the ground state. By removing the laser frequencies corresponding to the excitation of the v = 0 level, a dark state is produced by the so-shaped laser, yielding with successive laser pulses an accumulation of the molecules in the v = 0 level.
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Papers by N. Bouloufa