Optical cycling in CH radicals – a path towards ultracold organic chemistry

Techniques to directly laser cool and trap molecules at ultracold temperatures have revealed a new route towards the full quantum control of a diverse group of species with a variety of internal structures and properties. Our experimental effort capitalizes on this generality by aiming to directly laser cool and trap 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 and rovibrational closure to slow, cool and trap a molecular beam from our cryogenic source. Here we will present an experimental update including our latest results demonstrating optical cycling in CH radicals.