Progress towards direct laser cooling and trapping of CaH molecules

The past decade has seen impressive progress in the field of direct laser cooling and trapping of molecules, extending to new candidate platforms for quantum computing, quantum simulation, precision measurement and metrology. Here we present our progress towards laser cooling and trapping of CaH molecules, which could serve as a precursor to produce ultracold hydrogen gas. We present experimental results on transverse Sisyphus cooling of a cold beam of CaH molecules. We obtain good agreement with optical Bloch equation and Monte Carlo simulations and establish that a high scattering rate (~10⁶ photons/s) is achievable for this molecule. Next, we present our progress towards longitudinal white-light slowing of the molecular beam. With the application of the first three vibrational repumps, we expect to slow the molecular beam forward velocity to within the capture range of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) without significant loss to higher vibrational states. We describe our plan and progress towards the assembly of an ultrahigh-vacuum chamber and RF coils that will be used to generate an AC MOT of CaH molecules. Finally, we present potential dissociation pathways that could be implemented to create an ultracold sample of atomic hydrogen.