Trapping, Transporting, and Splitting Cold Molecules Employing a Spatial Liquid Crystal Modulator

Optically transporting and splitting cold molecules are proposed by spatially pure phase modulating a Gaussian laser beam with a spatial liquid crystal modulator (SLM). Taking the experimentally available cold KRb molecules (350 nK) as an example, the computations show that the trapping depth is about 460 μK and the trap can be split and transported up to 1 cm when a commercially available SLM is employed.