Molecular lattice clock with long vibrational coherence

Abstract

Atomic lattice clocks have spurred numerous ideas for tests of fundamental physics, detection of general relativistic effects, and studies of interacting many-body systems. On the other hand, molecular structure and dynamics offer rich energy scales that are at the heart of new protocols in precision measurement and quantum information science. Here we demonstrate a fundamentally distinct type of lattice clock that is based on vibrations in diatomic molecules, and present coherent Rabi oscillations between weakly and deeply bound molecules that persist for 10's of milliseconds. This control is made possible by a state-insensitive magic lattice trap that weakly couples to molecular vibronic resonances and enhances the coherence time between molecules and light by several orders of magnitude. The achieved quality factor $Q=8\times 10^{11}$ results from 30-Hz narrow resonances for a 25-THz clock transition in Sr${}_2$. Our technique of extended coherent manipulation is applicable to long-term storage of quantum information in qubits based on ultracold polar molecules, while the vibrational clock enables precise probes of interatomic forces, tests of Newtonian gravitation at ultrashort range, and model-independent searches for electron-to-proton mass ratio variations.

References in corpus (30)

• Realizing a lattice spin model with polar molecules
• Quantum-State Controlled Chemical Reactions of Ultracold KRb Molecules
• Atomic clock performance beyond the geodetic limit
• Magneto-optical trapping of a diatomic molecule
• Frequency ratio of two optical clock transitions in ${}^{171}$Yb${}^{+}$ and constraints on the time-variation of fundamental constants
• Quantum State Engineering and Precision Metrology using State-Insensitive Light Traps
• Gravitational wave detection with optical lattice atomic clocks
• A Fermi-degenerate three-dimensional optical lattice clock
• A precision measurement of the electron's electric dipole moment using trapped molecular ions
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• Spin-orbit coupled fermions in an optical lattice clock
• Precision Test of Mass Ratio Variations with Lattice-Confined Ultracold Molecules
• New frontiers with quantum gases of polar molecules
• Frequency ratio of Yb and Sr clocks with $5\times 10^{-17}$ uncertainty at 150 s averaging time
• Preparation and coherent manipulation of pure quantum states of a single molecular ion
• Bounds on fifth forces from precision measurements on molecules
• Second-Scale Nuclear Spin Coherence Time of Trapped Ultracold ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K Molecules
• Precise study of asymptotic physics with subradiant ultracold molecules
• Anisotropic Polarizability of Ultracold Polar ${}^{40}$K${}^{87}$Rb Molecules
• Optical Production of Stable Ultracold ${}^{88}$Sr${}_2$ Molecules
• QED effects in molecules: test on rotational quantum states of H${}_2$
• Photodissociation of ultracold diatomic strontium molecules with quantum state control
• 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
• Thermometry via Light Shifts in Optical Lattices
• High-precision spectroscopy of ultracold molecules in an optical lattice
• High sensitivity to mass-ratio variation in deep molecular potentials
• Optical lattice clocks with weakly bound molecules
• Elliptical polarization for molecular Stark shift compensation in deep optical traps
• Pendular trapping conditions for ultracold polar molecules enforced by external electric fields

Cited by in corpus (47)

• Assembly of a rovibrational ground state molecule in an optical tweezer
• Polyatomic Molecules as Quantum Sensors for Fundamental Physics
• Sub-Doppler Cooling and Compressed Trapping of YO Molecules at $\mu$K Temperatures
• Bimolecular chemistry in the ultracold regime
• Laser cooled molecules
• Proton-electron mass ratio by high-resolution optical spectroscopy of ion ensembles in the resolved-carrier regime
• Precision frequency-comb terahertz spectroscopy on pure quantum states of a single molecular ion
• Methods for measuring the electron EDM using ultracold YbF molecules
• Probing Fundamental Symmetries of Deformed Nuclei in Symmetric Top Molecules
• Optical cycling, radiative deflection and laser cooling of barium monohydride (BaH)
• Quantum control of molecules for fundamental physics
• Quantum Blackbody Thermometry
• Quantum Register of Fermion Pairs
• Enriching the quantum toolbox of ultracold molecules with Rydberg atoms
• Long rotational coherence times of molecules in a magnetic trap
• Tune-out and magic wavelengths for ground-state ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K molecules
• A terahertz vibrational molecular clock with systematic uncertainty at the $10^{-14}$ level
• Diatomic molecules of alkali-metal and alkaline-earth-metal atoms: interaction potentials, dipole moments, and polarizabilities
• Preparation of a Heteronuclear Two-atom System in the 3D Motional Ground State in an Optical Tweezer
• Second-Scale Coherence Measured at the Quantum Projection Noise Limit with Hundreds of Molecular Ions
• Reduction of laser intensity noise over 1 MHz band for single atom trapping
• Ultracold ${}^{88}{\mathrm{Sr}}_2$ molecules in the absolute ground state
• Magic Conditions for Multiple Rotational States of Bialkali Molecules in Optical Lattices
• First observation of electric-quadrupole infrared transitions in water vapour
• Coherent optical creation of a single molecule
• Bell correlations between light and vibration at ambient conditions
• Ultracold LiCr: a new pathway to quantum gases of paramagnetic polar molecules
• Transition strength measurements to guide magic wavelength selection in optically trapped molecules
• Prospects of nuclear-coupled-dark-matter detection via correlation spectroscopy of I${}_2^{+}$ and Ca${}^{+}$
• Jet-Loaded Cold Atomic Beam Source for Strontium
• High-resolution 'magic'-field spectroscopy on trapped polyatomic molecules
• Prospect for precision quantum logic spectroscopy of vibrational overtone transitions in molecular oxygen ions
• Chemical reactions of ultracold alkaline-earth-metal diatomic molecules
• Dynamics of a buffer-gas-loaded, deep optical trap for molecules
• Van der Waals molecules consisting of a zinc or cadmium atom interacting with an alkali-metal or alkaline-earth-metal atom
• Axion Bounds from Quantum Technology
• Hyperfine structure of the ${\mathbf{A}}^1\mathbf{\Pi }$ state of AlCl and its relevance to laser cooling and trapping
• Understanding inner-shell excitations in molecules through spectroscopy of the 4f hole states of YbF
• Excited electronic states of Sr${}_2$: ab initio predictions and experimental observation of the $2^1{\Sigma }_u^{+}$ state
• Accurate Determination of Blackbody Radiation Shifts in a Strontium Molecular Lattice Clock
• Ab initio electronic structure of the Sr${}_2^{+}$ molecular ion
• SU(2) hyper-clocks: quantum engineering of spinor interferences for time and frequency metrology
• Features of Molecular Structure Beneficial for Optical Pumping
• Measurement of the Electric Dipole Moment of AlCl by Stark Level Spectroscopy
• Ground-state selection via many-body superradiant decay
• Low Duty Cycle Pulsed UV Technique for Spectroscopy of Aluminum Monochloride
• Optimizing Pulsed-Laser Ablation Production of AlCl Molecules for Laser Cooling