Visible and Ultraviolet Laser Spectroscopy of ThF

Abstract

The molecular ion ThF${}^{+}$ is the species to be used in the next generation of search for the electron's Electric Dipole Moment (eEDM) at JILA. The measurement requires creating molecular ions in the eEDM sensitive state, the rovibronic ground state ${}^3{\Delta }_1$, $v^{+}=0$, $J^{+}=1$. Survey spectroscopy of neutral ThF is required to identify an appropriate intermediate state for a Resonance Enhanced Multi-Photon Ionization (REMPI) scheme that will create ions in the required state. We perform broadband survey spectroscopy (from 13000 to 44000~cm${}^{-1}$) of ThF using both Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) and $1+1^{\prime }$ REMPI spectroscopy. We observe and assign 345 previously unreported vibronic bands of ThF. We demonstrate 30\% efficiency in the production of ThF${}^{+}$ ions in the eEDM sensitive state using the $\Omega =3/2$ [32.85] intermediate state. In addition, we propose a method to increase the aforementioned efficiency to $\sim$100\% by using vibrational autoionization via core-nonpenetrating Rydberg states, and discuss theoretical and experimental challenges. Finally, we also report 83 vibronic bands of an impurity species, ThO.

49 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Electric Dipole Moments: A Global Analysis
• Time-reversal symmetry violation in molecules induced by nuclear magnetic quadrupole moments
• Theoretical study of ThF${}^{+}$ in the search for T,P-violation effects: Effective state of a Th atom in ThF${}^{+}$ and ThO compounds
• Broadband velocity modulation spectroscopy of HfF^+: towards a measurement of the electron electric dipole moment

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Spectroscopy on the eEDM-sensitive states of ThF${}^{+}$
• Spectroscopic and Electric Properties of the TaO${}^{+}$ Molecule Ion for the Search of New Physics: A Platform for Identification and State Control
• High-Efficiency Quantum-State Detection of ThF${}^{+}$ with Resonance-Enhanced Multiphoton Asymmetric Dissociation
• Laser fluence-dependent production of molecular thorium ions in different charge states for trapped-ion experiments