Magneto-Optical Trap for Polar Molecules

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We propose a method for laser cooling and trapping a substantial class of polar molecules, and in particular titanium (II) oxide (TiO). This method uses pulsed electric fields to nonadiabatically remix the ground-state magnetic sublevels of the molecule, allowing us to build a magneto-optical trap (MOT) based on a quasi-cycling J'=J"-1 transition. Monte-Carlo simulations of this electrostatically remixed MOT (ER-MOT) demonstrate the feasibility of cooling TiO to a temperature of 10 μK and trapping it with a radiation-pumping-limited lifetime on the order of 80 ms.