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Optical pumping of trapped neutral molecules by blackbody radiation

Steven Hoekstra, Joop J. Gilijamse, Boris Sartakov, Nicolas Vanhaecke, Ludwig Scharfenberg, Sebastiaan Y. T. van de Meerakker, Gerard Meijer

physics.atom-pharXiv:physics/0612214

Abstract

Optical pumping by blackbody radiation is a feature shared by all polar molecules and fundamentally limits the time that these molecules can be kept in a single quantum state in a trap. To demonstrate and quantify this, we have monitored the optical pumping of electrostatically trapped OH and OD radicals by room-temperature blackbody radiation. Transfer of these molecules to rotationally excited states by blackbody radiation at 295 K limits the 1/e trapping time for OH and OD in the X2Π3/2,v''=0,J''=3/2(f) state to 2.8 s and 7.1 s, respectively.

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