UC Riverside

Following the successes obtained with using lasers to cool and trap atoms, the same principles are being applied to molecules. Finding a molecule that is amenable to laser-cooling is not trivial. Aluminum monochloride (AlCl) has been proposed as a viable candidate for laser-cooling and trapping due to predicted large Franck-Condon factors and short excited state lifetime, allowing for efficient imparting of momentum from photons. To be efficiently slowed, multiple electrons must be cycled between the ground and excited states. This thesis presents a detailed derivation of the hamiltonian terms that must be understood for the X1Σ+ ↔ A1Π transition in AlCl. Initial absorption spectroscopy measurements are performed on the transition, yielding measurements of molecular constants. From these constants, the Franck-Condon factor for the cycling transition is determined to be 0.9988, which is ideal for cycling. The choice chemical compound that is ablated to produce AlCl for these experiments is not trivial. It is found that a mixing aluminum and potassium chloride with a molar ratio of 1:1.55 produces the optimal yield of AlCl. Additionally, a magneto-optical-trap apparatus is discussed and tested here on ytterbium. This test resulted in the successful trapping of neutral ytterbium, marking the creation of the first magneto-optical-trap at the University of California, Riverside. The vibrational and rotational properties of AlCl clearly make it a strong candidate for laser-cooling and trapping, however there are still many challenges that must be overcome before such experiments can be successful.