Title: Laser cooling of aluminium monofluoride molecules in the deep ultraviolet

Speaker: Dr Dylan Brown, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College London, UK

Abstract:
Directly laser coolable molecules with their rich internal structure, long lived rotational states and strong dipole moments have many applications in quantum simulation, computation and metrology. Direct laser cooling of molecules has in the past been restricted to molecules with ² Σ ground states, which are chemically reactive. Aluminium monofluoride (AlF) molecules are distinct from the molecules laser cooled so far; they have a ¹Σ ground state, feature an extremely narrow ¹Σ -> ³Σ transition, are strongly bound and chemically stable, and feature a strong optical cycling transition in the deep UV (DUV) at 227.5 nm that allows for rapid slowing and cooling of AlF molecules and the loading in a magneto optical trap.   I will present our work on laser slowing and cooling of AlF molecules, and our progress on the magneto-optical trapping of AlF. I will also present our work on the extensive development of DUV CW laser systems using second harmonic generation that have achieved a record level output power.