Progress towards a 3D MOT of CaH molecules

Direct laser cooling and trapping of molecules has enabled new possibilities in the fields of precision measurement, quantum information processing, and ultracold chemistry. Calcium monohydride (CaH) is a promising candidate for producing a dilute cloud of hydrogen atoms for spectroscopy and other applications. In order to slow the molecules down to the MOT capture velocity, it is important to achieve efficient optical cycling and dark state repumping. However, a nonradiative decay pathway, predissociation, could limit the ability to do so in a number of molecular species including CaH. Here we describe measurements of the predissociation rate of the B state in CaH, and demonstrate that predissociation does not limit our ability to make a 3D MOT. We also report our progress on direct laser slowing and trapping of CaH. This work validates a technique we developed to characterize molecular predissociation and provides insights on extending laser cooling techniques to other molecules that suffer from predissociation.