Lasers for Cold Atoms and Molecules

Cooling atoms to ultralow temperatures has produced a wealth of opportunities in fundamental physics, precision metrology, and quantum science.

Laser cooling of molecular gases is challenging to implement owing to the complexity of molecular structures. Recent application of sophisticated cooling techniques to molecules has opened the door to the longstanding goal of precisely controlling molecular internal and external degrees of freedom and the resulting interaction processes. This line of research can leverage fundamental insights into how molecules interact and evolve to enable the control of reaction chemistry and the design and realization of a range of advanced quantum materials. Cold molecule gases also allow precision measurements which set a new limit for electron’s electric dipole moment and could rule out many beyond standard-model physics theories.

C-WAVE at work with trapped ions

In this applications note we read how the flexibility of the C-WAVE’s single frequency tunable wavelength can be utilized for ion trapping experiments.

Coulomb crystals consisting of isotopically pure Magnesium ions are build employing a new tunable continuous-wave (cw) laser light source: Mg atoms are isotope-selective ionized by resonant two-photon excitation at a wavelength of 285.3 nm. The UV laser light is generated via resonant second-harmonic generation of the output of a new cw laser C-WAVE that offers about 0.5 W single frequency output power that is tunable in the range 450 – 650 nm. The created Mg ions are trapped and cooled, building 2D Coulomb crystals which are used for further investigation.

Download the full applications note here

Single frequency, ultra low noise lasers for atom trapping

Fiber lasers are frequently employed for trapping of cold atoms due to their high output powers, ultra-low noise level, single-frequency emission, outstanding pointing stability, nearly perfect Gaussian beam profile, and best-in-class power stability (typically < ± 0.3%  in the short and < ± 0.5% in the long term).

Related products

C-Wave

C-WAVE Series

Widely tunable continuous-wave lasers

Wavelength: 450 nm – 1900 nm
Power: 200 mW – 1000 mW
Applications: Nanophotonics, quantum research, Raman (TERS)

C-Wave

Ampheia™ Fiber Amplifier: COMING SOON

Ultra-low noise, single frequency, fiber amplifiers

Wavelength: 1064.2 ± 0.6 nm
Output power: 20 W, 40 W, 50 W
Applications: Atom trapping, Particle analysis, Optical metrology, Laser interferometry, Frequency conversion, Quantum sensing

C-Wave

Cobolt Qu-T™ Series: COMING SOON

Compact tunable Lasers – Single Frequency – Mode-hop Free Tuning

Wavelength: 707 nm, 780 nm, 813 nm
Output power:  >500 mW
Applications: Quantum Research, Quantum Computing, Atom Cooling, Atom Clock Research, Raman spectroscopy