Optimization of Pulsed-Laser Ablation Production of AlCl for Laser Cooling and Trapping

Ultracold molecules offer opportunities for many areas of fundamental research, ranging from testing fundamental physics, probing for temporal variations of fundamental constants, quantum simulation of many-body systems, control of chemical reactions and quantum information processing. To realize many of these applications a high phase-space density of ultracold molecules is required. Molecules with highly diagonal Franck-Condon factors are particularly well-suited for this endeavour. Here, we report on our ab-initio calculations and our spectroscopy results, which confirm that AlCl has a Franck-Condon factor of 99.88%[1], which renders it an excellent candidate for laser cooling and trapping. In addition, we will present our results on optimizing the production of AlCl via laser ablation of various chemical precursors, including AlCl3, Al+KCl, Al+MgCl2, in a cryogenic buffer-gas beam cell[2] and give an update on our progress towards slowing and cooling AlCl.