Prospects for laser cooling of polyatomic molecules with increasing complexity

Abstract

The authors discuss prospects for laser cooling of polyatomic molecules of increasing complexity from expanding alkaline chains to exohedral and endohedral fullerenes with one or two optical cycling centers attached. They demonstrate the degree to which these cycling centers retain their beneficial photon scattering properties for a diverse list of molecules. Their computational results indicate that a second optical cycling center potentially doubles the photon scattering rate and, therefore, improves the efficiency of the laser-cooling process.

Topics & Concepts