Observation and laser spectroscopy of ytterbium monomethoxide, YbOCH${}_3$

Abstract

We describe a laser spectroscopic study of ytterbium monomethoxide, YbOCH${}_3$, a species of interest to searches for time-reversal symmetry violation using laser-cooled molecules. We report measurements of vibrational structure in the $\tilde{X}$ and $\tilde{A}$ states, vibrational branching ratios for several components of the $\tilde{A}$ state, and radiative lifetimes of low-lying electronic states. $\text{Ab initio}$ calculations are used to aid the assignment of vibronic emission bands and provide insight into the electronic and vibrational structure. Our results demonstrate that rapid optical cycling is feasible for YbOCH${}_3$, opening a path to orders-of-magnitude increased sensitivity in future measurements of P- and/or T-violating physics.

14 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (19)

• Laser cooled molecules
• Quantum Control of Trapped Polyatomic Molecules for eEDM Searches
• Functionalizing Aromatic Compounds with Optical Cycling Centers
• Accurate prediction and measurement of vibronic branching ratios for laser cooling linear polyatomic molecules
• Establishing a nearly closed cycling transition in a polyatomic molecule
• Laser-coolable AcOH${}^{+}$ ion for $\mathcal{C}\mathcal{P}$-violation searches
• Molecular enhancement factors for P, T-violating eEDM in BaCH${}_3$ and YbCH${}_3$ symmetric top molecules
• Engineering field-insensitive molecular clock transitions for symmetry violation searches
• Quantum-Enhanced Metrology for Molecular Symmetry Violation using Decoherence-Free Subspaces
• Intensity-borrowing mechanisms pertinent to laser cooling of linear polyatomic molecules
• Ab initio study of electronic states and radiative properties of the AcF molecule
• Multivalent optical cycling centers in polyatomic molecules
• Rotating and vibrating symmetric top molecule RaOCH${}_3$ in the fundamental $\mathcal{P}$, $\mathcal{T}$-violation searches
• Prospects for measuring the electron's electric dipole moment with polyatomic molecules in an optical lattice
• Static electric dipole moment of the francium atom induced by axionlike particle exchange
• Zeeman-Sisyphus Deceleration for Heavy Molecules with Perturbed Excited-State Structure
• Coherence of Symmetry-Protected Rotational Qubits in Cold Polyatomic Molecules
• Optical cycling in charged complexes with Ra-N bonds
• $\mathcal{P}$, $\mathcal{T}$-violating axion-mediated interactions in RaOH molecule