Observation of Bose-Einstein condensation of dipolar molecules.

Ensembles of particles governed by quantum mechanical laws exhibit intriguing emergent behaviour. Atomic quantum gases, liquid helium and electrons in quantum materials all exhibit distinct properties because of their composition and interactions. Quantum degenerate samples of ultracold dipolar molecules promise the realization of new phases of matter and new avenues for quantum simulation and quantum computation.

A planar cloverleaf antenna for circularly polarized microwave fields in atomic and molecular physics experiments.

We report on the design and characterization of a compact microwave antenna for atomic and molecular physics experiments. The antenna is comprised of four loop antennas arranged in a cloverleaf shape, allowing for precise adjustment of polarization by tuning the relative phase of the loops. We optimize the antenna for left-circularly polarized microwaves at 3.

Laser Scheme for Doppler Cooling of the Hydroxyl Cation (OH).

We report on a cycling scheme for Doppler cooling of trapped OH ions using transitions between the electronic ground state Σ and the first excited triplet state Π. We have identified relevant transitions for photon cycling and repumping, have found that coupling into other electronic states is strongly suppressed, and have calculated the number of photon scatterings required to cool OH to a temperature where Raman sideband cooling can take over. In contrast to the standard approach, where molecular ions are sympathetically cooled, our scheme does not require co-trapping of another species and opens the door to the creation of pure samples of cold molecular ions with potential applications in quantum information, quantum chemistry, and astrochemistry.

Ultracold Gas of Dipolar NaCs Ground State Molecules.

We report on the creation of bosonic NaCs molecules in their absolute rovibrational ground state via stimulated Raman adiabatic passage. We create ultracold gases with up to 22 000 dipolar NaCs molecules at a temperature of 300(50) nK and a peak density of 1.0(4)×10^{12}  cm^{-3}.