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Updated: Feb 5, 2026

Optical Trapping of Nanoparticles
Published on: January 15, 2013
Λ-Enhanced Imaging of Molecules in an Optical Trap
Lawrence W Cheuk1,2, Loïc Anderegg1,2, Benjamin L Augenbraun1,2
1Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Abstract:
We report on nondestructive imaging of optically trapped calcium monofluoride molecules using in situ Λ-enhanced gray molasses cooling. 200 times more fluorescence is obtained compared to destructive on-resonance imaging, and the trapped molecules remain at a temperature of 20 μK. The achieved number of scattered photons makes possible nondestructive single-shot detection of single molecules with high fidelity.
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