The Cold and Ultracold Molecules Group
Laser light can, over thousands of absorption and emission cycles, confine and cool particles to around one thousandth of a degree above absolute zero temperature. This technique has been applied to a wide range of atoms in the periodic table, and is enabling studies of novel phases of matter, the development of quantum sensing and measurement devices, and experiments in quantum information and computation.
We use laser light to cool and trap small molecular species. Our primary focus is aluminum monofluoride (AlF), a deeply bound and stable molecule with a 1Σ+ electronic ground state. Whilst the required laser wavelength to cool AlF is challenging, there are many convenient properties of AlF arising from its distinct electronic structure compared with other laser-cooled molecules. We expect these features to be highly beneficial for a range of experiments with ultracold matter.