Rare Isotope-Containing Diamond Color Centers for Fundamental Symmetry Tests
Abstract
Detecting a non-zero electric dipole moment (EDM) in a particle would unambiguously signify physics beyond the Standard Model. A potential pathway towards this is the detection of a nuclear Schiff moment, the magnitude of which is enhanced by the presence of nuclear octupole deformation. However, due to the low production rate of isotopes featuring such "pear-shaped" nuclei, capturing, detecting, and manipulating them efficiently is a crucial prerequisite. Incorporating them into synthetic diamond optical crystals can produce defects with defined, molecule-like structures and isolated electronic states within the diamond band gap, increasing capture efficiency, enabling repeated probing of even a single atom, and producing narrow optical linewidths. In this study, we used density functional theory (DFT) to investigate the formation, structure, and electronic properties of crystal defects in diamond containing Pa, a rare isotope that is predicted to have an exceptionally strong nuclear octupole deformation. In addition, we identified and studied stable lanthanide-containing defects with similar electronic structures as non-radioactive proxies to aid in experimental methods. Our findings hold promise for the existence of such defects and can contribute to the development of a quantum information processing-inspired toolbox of techniques for studying rare isotopes.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2305.05781,
title = {Rare Isotope-Containing Diamond Color Centers for Fundamental Symmetry Tests},
author = {Ian M. Morris and Kai Klink and Jaideep T. Singh and Jose L. Mendoza-Cortes and Shannon S. Nicley and Jonas N. Becker},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.05781},
year = {2023}
}