| Diatomic molecules are considered good candidates for the study of strongly correlated systems and precision measurement searches due to their combination of complex internal states and strong long-range interactions. Cooling molecules down to ultracold temperatures is often a necessary step for fully utilizing the power of the molecule. This requires a trap for molecules and the ability to cool molecules to the mK regime and below. A magneto-optical trap (MOT) is a good tool for achieving mK temperatures. However, extra care is needed for molecules to form the necessary quasi-closed cycling transitions due to molecule's complicated energy structure. In our work with CaF, we use two repump lasers to block vibrational leakage and selection rules for the rotational degree of freedom to achieve about 105 photon cycles.;The two-stage buffer gas beam source is a general method to generate a cold and slow beam of molecules with a forward velocity of about 50 m/s. The compatibility of the buffer-gas source with a MOT is studied and we confirm that such beams can be nicely compatible with MOTs using various atomic species.;In order to load molecules into a MOT from even such a slow beam, additional slowing is required due to the low capture velocity of a molecular MOT (< 10 m/s). We apply a frequency-broadened "white-light" slowing on CaF from a two-stage source, demonstrating slowing of CaF below 10 m/s. An AC MOT, which provides active remixing of dark substates, is also developed and Li atoms are slowed and trapped. These are crucial ingredients for co-trapping CaF molecules and Li atoms and study their collisional properties, which would lead to sympathetic cooling of molecules down to ultracold temperatures.;The achievement of slowing and development of this system allowed for the detailed study of the CaF laser cooling system, as well as physical processes involved with AC MOTs and the proposed MOT for CaF. Crucial knowledge of this archetypal system provides significant progress toward manipulation and control of molecules similar to what has been achieved with atoms and what is necessary for searches for new physics with ultracold molecules. |
