Tue October 1, 2019 4:00 pm
Tanya Zelevinsky: Precision metrology with ultracold molecules
Location:MIT 4-270
Tanya Zelevinsky, Columbia
Ten Minute Talk:"Probing for New Physics with Isotope Shifts" by
Ian Counts
Diatomic molecules can be created and trapped in optical lattices at ultracold temperatures. This approach allows exquisite control over the internal and external quantum states of the molecules. Using optical techniques, we precisely measure the coupling between a series of ground and excited electronic states, which enables us to design magic lattice trapping for given pairs of vibrational states. In the magic lattices, we observe long-lived coherent superpositions of vibrational states, leading to ultranarrow molecular clock transitions in the terahertz regime. The vibrational molecular clock allows interatomic force measurements with resolution exceeding a part per trillion, eventually improving the constraints on new short-range forces and on a possible instability of the electron-to-proton mass ratio. The clock coherence is partly limited by the lattice light that can photodissociate molecules. This photochemical reaction with quantum-state controlled molecules is itself interesting in the ultracold regime, and exhibits nonclassical phenomena such as coherent superpositions of the reaction product states.