Cold, slow CH radicals for laser cooling and trapping experiments

Techniques to directly laser cool and trap molecules at ultracold temperatures have revealed a new route towards the full quantum control of a diverse range of molecules with a variety of internal structures. This experiment aims to capitalize on this generality by laser cooling and trapping CH radicals for tests of ultracold organic chemistry. The low mass and blue optical transitions in this species lead to high recoil velocities which can significantly reduce the required photon budget to slow, cool and trap a molecular beam from our cryogenic source [1]. We will present our proposed optical cycling schemes alongside recent experimental work characterizing cold, slow CH radicals within our apparatus.