Prospects for application of ultracold Sr${}_2$ molecules in precision measurements

Abstract

Precision measurements with ultracold molecules require development of robust and sensitive techniques to produce and interrogate the molecules. With this goal, we theoretically analyze factors that affect frequency measurements between rovibrational levels of the Sr${}_2$ molecule in the electronic ground state. This measurement can be used to constrain the possible time variation of the proton-electron mass ratio. Sr${}_2$ is expected to be a strong candidate for achieving high precision due to the spinless nature and ease of cooling and perturbation-free trapping of Sr \cite{Zelevinsky2008}. The analysis includes calculations of two-photon transition dipole moments between deeply and weakly bound vibrational levels, lifetimes of intermediate excited states, and Stark shifts of the vibrational levels by the optical lattice field, including possibilities of Stark-cancellation trapping.

8 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (14)

• A High Phase-Space-Density Gas of Polar Molecules
• Sr lattice clock at 1x10^{-16} fractional uncertainty by remote optical evaluation with a Ca clock
• Quantum State Engineering and Precision Metrology using State-Insensitive Light Traps
• Compact, thermal-noise-limited optical cavity for diode laser stabilization at 1 x 10-15
• New Limits on Coupling of Fundamental Constants to Gravity Using ${}^{87}$Sr Optical Lattice Clocks
• Precision Test of Mass Ratio Variations with Lattice-Confined Ultracold Molecules
• Enhanced sensitivity to variation of the fine structure constant and m_p/m_e in diatomic molecules
• Stability of the proton-to-electron mass ratio
• Using Molecules to Measure Nuclear Spin-Dependent Parity Violation
• Enhanced sensitivity to variation of $m_e/m_p$ in molecular spectra
• Enhanced sensitivity to time-variation of m_p/m_e in the inversion spectrum of ammonia
• Narrow Line Photoassociation in an Optical Lattice
• Enhancement of the electric dipole moment of the electron in PbO
• Resonance reactions and enhancement of weak interactions in collisions of cold molecules

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Creation of ultracold Sr2 molecules in the electronic ground state
• Production of quantum degenerate strontium gases: Larger, better, faster, colder
• Rovibrational dynamics of the strontium molecule in the A^1Σ_u^+, c^3Π_u, and a^3Σ_u^+ manifold from state-of-the-art ab initio calculations
• Electric field-dependent dynamic polarizability and "magic" conditions for optical trapping of polar molecules
• Adiabatic loading of one-dimensional SU(N) alkaline earth fermions in optical lattices
• Mass scaling and non-adiabatic effects in photoassociation spectroscopy of ultracold strontium atoms
• Dipole Polarizability of Alkali-Metal (Na, K, Rb) - Alkaline-Earth-Metal (Ca,Sr) Polar molecules - Prospects of Alignment
• Prospects for assembling ultracold radioactive molecules from laser-cooled atoms
• Formation of deeply bound ultracold Sr_2 molecules by photoassociation near the ^1S + ^3P_1 intercombination line
• Relativistic calculations of $C_6$ and $C_8$ coefficients for strontium dimers
• Chemical reactions of ultracold alkaline-earth-metal diatomic molecules
• Excited electronic states of Sr${}_2$: ab initio predictions and experimental observation of the $2^1{\Sigma }_u^{+}$ state
• Features of Molecular Structure Beneficial for Optical Pumping
• Creating a Quantum Degenerate Gas of Stable Molecules via Weak Photoassociation