A new route for laser cooling and trapping of cold molecules: Intensity-gradient cooling of MgF molecules using localized hollow beams

Abstract

We propose a promising scheme to prepare ultracold MgF molecules from a slowed cold molecular beam by using three-dimensional pure intensity-gradient induced Sisyphus cooling. The cooling is based on a blue-detuned localized hollow beam and a weak repumping beam. We investigate the dynamic process in the trap with the method of the Monte-Carlo simulations, verifying the feasibility. Our results show that achieving sub-Doppler temperature should be possible in such a well-designed trap; the trapped MgF molecules with initial temperature of $1\,{\rm{mK}}$ can be directly cooled to the final equilibrium temperature of about $46.5\,\mu {\rm{K}},$ well below the Doppler limit (about $527.9\,\mu {\rm{K}}$ for MgF); meanwhile, molecules with initial temperature of $14\,{\rm{mK}}$ can be even cooled to about $68.7\,\mu {\rm{K}}.$

Keywords

• cold molecules
• laser cooling
• pure intensity-gradient cooing
• localized hollow beam