Structures, Branching Ratios and Laser Cooling Scheme for 138BaF Molecule

Abstract

For laser cooling considerations, we have theoretically investigated the electronic, rovibrational and hypefine structures of BaF molecule. The highly diagonal Franck-Condon factors and the branching ratios for all possible transitions within the lowest-lying four electronic states have also been calculated. Meanwhile, the mixing between metastable A'2Δ and A2Πstates and further the lifetime of the Δ state have been estimated since the loss procedure via Δ state would like fatally destroy the main quasi-cycling Σ-Πtransition for cooling and trapping. The resultant hyperfine splittings of each rovibrational states in X2Σ+ state provide benchmarksfor sideband modulations of cooling and repumping lasers and remixing microwaves to address all necessary levels. The calculated Zeeman shift and g-factors for both X and A states serve as benchmarks for selections of the trapping laser polarizations. Our study paves the way for future laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of the BaF molecule.

10 pages, 5 figures