4 research outputs found
Radiative lifetime of the A 2Î 1/2 state in RaF with relevance to laser cooling
The radiative lifetime of the (v=0) state in radium monofluoride (RaF) is measured to be 35(1) ns. The lifetime of this state and the related decay rate are of relevance to the laser cooling of RaF via the optically closed transition, which makes the molecule a promising probe to search for new physics. RaF is found to have a comparable photon-scattering rate to homoelectronic laser-coolable molecules. Thanks to its highly diagonal Franck-Condon matrix, it is expected to scatter an order of magnitude more photons than other molecules when using just 3 cooling lasers, before it decays to a dark state. The lifetime measurement in RaF is benchmarked by measuring the lifetime of the state in Fr to be 83(3) ns, in agreement with literature
Pinning down electron correlations in RaF via spectroscopy of excited states
International audienceWe report the spectroscopy of 11 electronic states in the radioactive molecule radium monofluoride (RaF). The observed excitation energies are compared with state-of-the-art relativistic Fock-space coupled cluster (FS-RCC) calculations, which achieve an agreement of >99.71% (within ~8 meV) for all states. High-order electron correlation and quantum electrodynamics corrections are found to be important at all energies. Establishing the accuracy of calculations is an important step towards high-precision studies of these molecules, which are proposed for sensitive searches of physics beyond the Standard Model
Radiative lifetime of the A 2Î 1/2 state in RaF with relevance to laser cooling
International audienceThe radiative lifetime of the (v=0) state in radium monofluoride (RaF) is measured to be 35(1) ns. The lifetime of this state is of relevance to the laser cooling of RaF via the optically closed transition, which is an advantageous aspect of the molecule for its promise as a probe for new physics. The radiative decay rate s is extracted using the lifetime, which determines the natural linewidth of 4.6(3) MHz and the maximum photon scattering rate of s of the laser-cooling transition. RaF is thus found to have a comparable photon-scattering rate with other laser-cooled molecules, while thanks to its highly diagonal Franck-Condon matrix it is expected to scatter an order of magnitude more photons when using 3 cooling lasers before it decays to a dark state. The lifetime measurement in RaF is benchmarked by measuring the lifetime of the state in Fr to be 83(3) ns, in agreement with literature
Pinning down electron correlations in RaF via spectroscopy of excited states
We report the spectroscopy of 11 electronic states in the radioactive molecule radium monofluoride (RaF). The observed excitation energies are compared with state-of-the-art relativistic Fock-space coupled cluster (FS-RCC) calculations, which achieve an agreement of >99.71% (within ~8 meV) for all states. High-order electron correlation and quantum electrodynamics corrections are found to be important at all energies. Establishing the accuracy of calculations is an important step towards high-precision studies of these molecules, which are proposed for sensitive searches of physics beyond the Standard Model