Optical cycling in charged complexes with Ra-N bonds

The extension of laser cooling and trapping techniques to polyatomic molecular ions would have advanced scientific applications such as search of physics outside of the Standard Model, ultracold chemistry etc. We apply the Fock space relativistic coupled cluster method to study low-lying electronic states of molecular ions with Ra--N bonds, namely RaNCH$^+$, RaNH$^+_3$ and RaNCCH$^+_3$. Prospects of laser cooling of these species are estimated, and the peculiarities of unpaired-electron distributions are analyzed from the point of view of the molecular electronic structure. RaNH$^+_3$ and RaNCCH$^+_3$ are the first symmetric top molecular ions expected to be suitable for direct laser cooling

Compound-tunable embedding potential method to model local electronic excitations on ff-element ions in solids: Pilot relativistic coupled cluster study of Ce and Th impurities in yttrium orthophosphate, YPO4_4

A method to simulate local properties and processes in crystals with impurities via constructing cluster models within the frame of the compound-tunable embedding potential (CTEP) and highly-accurate {\it ab initio} relativistic molecular-type electronic structure calculations is developed and applied to the Ce and Th-doped yttrium orthophosphate crystals, YPO$_4$, having xenotime structure. Two embedded cluster models are considered, the "minimal" one, YO$_8$@CTEP$_{\rm min}$, consisting of the central Y$^{3+}$ cation and its first coordination sphere of eight O$^{2-}$ anions (i.~e.\ with broken P--O bonds), and its extended counterpart, Y(PO$_4$)$_6$@CTEP$_{\rm ext}$, implying the full treatment of all atoms of the PO$_4^{3-}$ anions nearest to the central Y$^{3+}$ cation. CTEP$_{\rm min,ext}$ denote here the corresponding cluster environment described within the CTEP method. The relativistic Fock-space coupled cluster (FS RCC) theory is applied to the minimal cluster model to study electronic excitations localized on Ce$^{3+}$ and Th$^{3+}$ impurity ions. Calculated transition energies for the cerium-doped xenotime are in a good agreement with the available experimental data (mean absolute deviation of ca.0.3 eV for $4f{\to}5d$ type transitions). For the thorium-doped crystal the picture of electronic states is predicted to be quite complicated, the ground state is expected to be of the $6d$ character. The uncertainty for the excitation energies of thorium-doped xenotime is estimated to be within 0.35 eV. Radiative lifetimes of excited states are calculated at the FS RCC level for both doped crystals. The calculated lifetime of the lowest $5d$ state of Ce$^{3+}$ differs from the experimentally measured one by no more than twice

Relativistic Calculations on the Electric Dipole Transition Probabilities of the RbAr Exciplex

Accurate evaluation of electric dipole (E1) transition probabilities in exciplexes formed by an alkali atom (M) and rare gas (Rg) atom(s) is essential for modelling optically pumped M–Rg laser media. We present a simple finite-difference scheme of ab initio calculations of E1 transition moments in the RbAr exciplex in the frames of relativistic Fock space coupled cluster approach

Relativistic Calculations on the Electric Dipole Transition Probabilities of the RbAr Exciplex

Accurate evaluation of electric dipole (E1) transition probabilities in exciplexes formed by an alkali atom (M) and rare gas (Rg) atom(s) is essential for modelling optically pumped M–Rg laser media. We present a simple finite-difference scheme of ab initio calculations of E1 transition moments in the RbAr exciplex in the frames of relativistic Fock space coupled cluster approach

Radiative lifetimes of the NaRb C(3)

Radiative lifetimes for 2≤v′≤44 rovibronic C1Σ+ state levels of NaRb and quenching collision cross-sections with Rb atoms have been directly measured in a thermal cell by detecting time resolved laser induced fluorescence after pulsed excitation. Many body multipartitioning theory was applied to calculate C1Σ+-X1Σ+ and C1Σ+-A1Σ+ transition dipole moments. The relevant ab initio matrix elements were converted to the C1Σ+ state radiative lifetimes. The strong spin-orbit A1Σ+∼ b3Π coupling effect on the total C → A transition probabilities and lifetimes of the C1Σ+ state is discussed. The measured radiative lifetimes show a decrease from 61 to 34 ns as the v′ values increase, the results being in good agreement with calculations. The averaged collisional quenching cross-section value σ=(3±1)×10-14 cm2 was determined for NaRb (C1Σ+) + Rb collisions from the Stern-Volmer plots