Spectroscopy of short-lived radioactive molecules.
- Garcia Ruiz RF CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. rgarciar@mit.edu.
- Berger R Fachbereich Chemie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany. robert.berger@uni-marburg.de.
- Billowes J Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
- Binnersley CL Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
- Bissell ML Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
- Breier AA Laboratory for Astrophysics, Institute of Physics, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany.
- Brinson AJ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Chrysalidis K CERN, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Cocolios TE KU Leuven, Instituut voor Kern- en Stralingsfysica, Leuven, Belgium.
- Cooper BS Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
- Flanagan KT Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
- Giesen TF Laboratory for Astrophysics, Institute of Physics, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany.
- de Groote RP Department of Physics, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
- Franchoo S Institut de Physique Nucleaire d'Orsay, Orsay, France.
- Gustafsson FP KU Leuven, Instituut voor Kern- en Stralingsfysica, Leuven, Belgium.
- Isaev TA NRC 'Kurchatov Institute'-PNPI, Gatchina, Russia.
- Koszorús Á KU Leuven, Instituut voor Kern- en Stralingsfysica, Leuven, Belgium.
- Neyens G CERN, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Perrett HA Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
- Ricketts CM Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
- Rothe S CERN, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Schweikhard L Institut für Physik, Universität Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
- Vernon AR Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
- Wendt KDA Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
- Wienholtz F CERN, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Wilkins SG CERN, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Yang XF School of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
- 2020-05-29
Published in:
- Nature. - 2020
English
Molecular spectroscopy offers opportunities for the exploration of the fundamental laws of nature and the search for new particle physics beyond the standard model1-4. Radioactive molecules-in which one or more of the atoms possesses a radioactive nucleus-can contain heavy and deformed nuclei, offering high sensitivity for investigating parity- and time-reversal-violation effects5,6. Radium monofluoride, RaF, is of particular interest because it is predicted to have an electronic structure appropriate for laser cooling6, thus paving the way for its use in high-precision spectroscopic studies. Furthermore, the effects of symmetry-violating nuclear moments are strongly enhanced5,7-9 in molecules containing octupole-deformed radium isotopes10,11. However, the study of RaF has been impeded by the lack of stable isotopes of radium. Here we present an experimental approach to studying short-lived radioactive molecules, which allows us to measure molecules with lifetimes of just tens of milliseconds. Energetically low-lying electronic states were measured for different isotopically pure RaF molecules using collinear resonance ionisation at the ISOLDE ion-beam facility at CERN. Our results provide evidence of the existence of a suitable laser-cooling scheme for these molecules and represent a key step towards high-precision studies in these systems. Our findings will enable further studies of short-lived radioactive molecules for fundamental physics research.
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- English
- Open access status
- hybrid
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- DOI 10.1038/s41586-020-2299-4
- PMID 32461650
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/112340
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