{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/116140"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/116140","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Progress toward ground-state sodium-rubidium molecules","abstract":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2022-11-15 without embargo terms","abstract_html":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2022-11-15 without embargo terms","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Highman, Michael A."],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Physics","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Gadway, Bryce","DeMarco, Brian L","Goldschmidt, Elizabeth","Chitambar, Eric"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2022,"date_issued":"2022-08","date_published":"2022-08","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:55Z","subjects":["physics","amo","atomic","molecular","optical","quantum","gas","gases","molecules","spectroscopy","laser","coils","Feshbach","quantum simulation","sodium","rubidium"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2022 Michael A. Highman"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/116140","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Gadway, Bryce","DeMarco, Brian L","Goldschmidt, Elizabeth","Chitambar, Eric"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Highman, Michael A."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2022-08","2022-05-12"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Physics"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["physics","amo","atomic","molecular","optical","quantum","gas","gases","molecules","spectroscopy","laser","coils","Feshbach","quantum simulation","sodium","rubidium"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2022 Michael A. Highman"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/116140"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2022-11-15 without embargo terms","The student, Michael Highman, accepted the attached license on 2022-05-10 at 22:40.","The student, Michael Highman, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2022-05-10 at 22:49.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2022-05-12 at 16:07.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #18023 on 2022-11-15 at 17:37:24","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."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Progress toward ground-state sodium-rubidium molecules"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Gadway, Bryce","DeMarco, Brian L","Goldschmidt, Elizabeth","Chitambar, Eric"],"dc:creator":["Highman, Michael A."],"dc:date":["2022-08","2022-05-12"],"dc:description":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2022-11-15 without embargo terms","The student, Michael Highman, accepted the attached license on 2022-05-10 at 22:40.","The student, Michael Highman, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2022-05-10 at 22:49.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2022-05-12 at 16:07.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #18023 on 2022-11-15 at 17:37:24","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."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/116140"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2022 Michael A. Highman"],"dc:subject":["physics","amo","atomic","molecular","optical","quantum","gas","gases","molecules","spectroscopy","laser","coils","Feshbach","quantum simulation","sodium","rubidium"],"dc:title":["Progress toward ground-state sodium-rubidium molecules"],"dc:type":["text","Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Physics"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:55Z"}