Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme

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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik

MO 23: Cold Molecules III

MO 23.4: Talk

Friday, March 16, 2012, 11:30–11:45, V38.03

Depletion Stark Spectroscopy of Cold Polar Molecules in a Homogeneous Field Electric Trap — •Rosa Glöckner, Barbara G.U. Englert, Martin Zeppenfeld, and Gerhard Rempe — Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching

Cold molecules are expected to substantially increase the resolution in high-precision molecular spectroscopy with applications ranging from tests of quantum electrodynamics to the search for an electron electric dipole moment. For many applications, long interrogation times are essential which suggests trapping of cold polar molecules. However, broadening due to the trapping fields seems to contradict the desire to observe narrow spectral features.

Here, we present depletion spectroscopy in a novel microstructured electric trap which exhibits tunable homogeneous fields over a large fraction of the trap volume  [1]. Using either infrared or mm-wave radiation allows depletion of individual rotational states with a Stark broadening of only a few percent of the trap depth, much less than the molecular temperature. A 1/e storage time of over 10 s in the trap provides for long interrogation times enabling spectroscopy of weak transitions. Future improvements will allow spectroscopy with kHz resolution establishing our experiment as a novel platform for precision spectroscopy.

[1] B.G.U. Englert et al., Phys. Rev. Lett, in press (arXiv:1107.2821).