Precisely Spun Super Rotors

Abstract

Improved optical control of molecular quantum states promises new applications including chemistry in the quantum regime, precision tests of fundamental physics, and quantum information processing. While much work has sought to prepare ground state molecules, excited states are also of interest. We demonstrate a broadband optical approach to pump trapped SiO${}^{+}$ molecules into pure super rotor ensembles maintained for many minutes. Super rotor ensembles pumped up to rotational state $N=67$, corresponding to the peak of a 9400 K distribution, had a narrow $N$ spread comparable to that of a few-kelvin sample, and were used for spectroscopy of the previously unobserved C${}^2\Pi$ state. Significant centrifugal distortion of super rotors pumped up to $N=230$ allowed probing electronic structure of SiO${}^{+}$ stretched far from its equilibrium bond length.

References in corpus (4)

• Optical pumping and vibrational cooling of molecules
• Ar-39 Detection at the 10^-16 Isotopic Abundance Level with Atom Trap Trace Analysis
• Cooling of a Zero-Nuclear-Spin Molecular Ion to a Selected Rotational State
• Dipole-phonon quantum logic with alkaline-earth monoxide and monosulfide cations

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Quantum control of molecules for fundamental physics
• Quantum state tracking and control of a single molecular ion in a thermal environment
• Enhancing reactivity of SiO${}^{+}$ ions by controlled excitation to extreme rotational states
• High-resolution laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy of ${}^{28}$Si${}^{16}$O${}^{+}$ and ${}^{29}$Si${}^{16}$O${}^{+}$ in a cryogenic buffer-gas cell
• Features of Molecular Structure Beneficial for Optical Pumping
• Photon spin molasses for laser cooling molecular rotation
• Quantum dynamics of a polar rotor acted upon by an electric rectangular pulse of variable duration
• Highly spin-polarized molecules via collisional microwave pumping