Polarization Enhanced Deep Optical Dipole Trapping of $Λ$-cooled Polar Molecules

Abstract: We demonstrate loading of SrF molecules into an optical dipole trap (ODT) via in-trap $\Lambda$-cooling. We find that this cooling can be optimized by a proper choice of relative ODT and $\Lambda$ beam polarizations. In this optimized configuration, we observe molecules with temperatures as low as 14(1) $\mu$K in traps with depths up to 570 $\mu$K. With optimized parameters, we transfer $!\sim!5$% of molecules from our radio-frequency magneto-optical trap into the ODT, at a density of $\sim!2\times 10^{9}$ cm$^{-3}$, a phase space density of $\sim!2\times 10^{-7}$, and with a trap lifetime of $!\sim!1$ s.