Loading molecular magneto-optical traps with rainbow slowing

Rainbow slowing is a new method of laser slowing designed to more efficiently bring molecules to desirable speeds for magneto-optical trapping. Rainbow slowing uses a series of decreasing frequency laser beams that incrementally slow the molecules at targeted locations along their path using beams with different angles to account for the variation in distance traveled by the molecules over time. This provides positionally dependent slowing, which is currently missing in typical laser slowing methods. We will present progress on implementing this new technique to enhance the number of trapped molecules in our CaF MOT, and compare it with conventional slowing techniques, including chirped and whitelight slowing.