Progress toward ground-state sodium-rubidium molecules

In the last decade, ultracold polar molecules have emerged as one of the most exciting experimental platforms for the discovery of new physics and chemistry. Their complex internal structure, comprised of many kinds of states at vastly different energy scales, makes them well suited for a wide variety of scientific applications. In particular, ultracold molecules are promising candidates for tests of fundamental physics, quantum simulation and computation, and quantum chemistry. In this thesis we report on experimental progress in our lab toward the creation of ro-vibrational ground state sodium-rubidium (^{23}Na ^{87}Rb) molecules. We explain the roadmap to their creation by first cooling ^{23}Na and ^{87}Rb gases, associating them into loosely bound molecules via the use of a Feshbach resonance, and lastly bringing them to their ro-vibrational ground state using Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP). Additionally, we detail a parallel theoretical effort to address the ability to nondestructively image rotationally excited ultracold molecules. This is done by using the molecule's inherent birefringence to rotate the polarization of a probing laser field. We thoroughly analyze the molecular states within the ground and first electronic excited potentials of ^{23}Na ^{87}Rb and summarize the effectiveness of our proposed imaging scheme by choosing three promising probe laser wavelengths. Upon realization of ground state ^{23}Na ^{87}Rb, we aim to demonstrate our imaging technique. We also discuss the next immediate experimental steps toward the realization of this goal.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Highman, Michael A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Gadway, Bryce
• DeMarco, Brian L
• Goldschmidt, Elizabeth
• Chitambar, Eric

• physics
• amo
• atomic
• molecular
• optical
• quantum
• gas
• gases
• molecules
• spectroscopy
• laser
• coils
• Feshbach
• quantum simulation
• sodium
• rubidium

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Michael A. Highman

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/116140

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F116140