Atomic Physics
Lithium and lithium-like elements look like hydrogen atoms if their two electrons and the nucleus are considered a core around which a single electron is orbiting. The energy and radii expressions for hydrogen atoms can be used for lithium…
We present an experimental setup to laser cool and trap a large number of Ytterbium atoms. Our design uses an oven with an array of microtubes for efficient collimation of the atomic beam and we implement a magneto-optical trap of…
Probing vibronic coherence in molecules has been a central topic in ultrafast science, as it is an essential prerequisite to monitoring electronic motion. While experiments have demonstrated that attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy…
The autoionization of core-excited Rydberg states is theoretically studied for a broad range of principal and angular-momentum quantum numbers $n$ and $\ell$ in alkaline-earth-metal atoms. We combined two theoretical methods to calculate…
As a step toward the full \emph{ab-initio} description of two-photon double ionization processes, we present a finite-pulse version of the virtual-sequential model for polyelectronic atoms. The model relies on the \emph{ab initio}…
We have trapped BaF molecules in neon ice, and used laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy to map out optical transitions in the trapped molecules. Our measurements show that the neon lattice does not significantly perturb certain optical…
Understanding the interactions between atoms and light is at the heart of atomic physics. Being able to `experiment' with various system parameters, produce plots of the results and interpret these is very useful, especially for those new…
Multichannel quantum defect theory (MQDT) provides a powerful toolkit for describing and understanding collisions of cold alkali atoms. Various MQDT approximations differ primarily in how they characterize the so-called short-ranged…
The non-linear dynamics of large ion clouds ($N \geq 256 $ ions) trapped in radio-frequency traps and coupled to laser-cooling give rise to a bistable behaviour of the temperature. Numerical simulations of the free evolution of a large…
We demonstrate a novel scheme for Raman-pulse and Bragg-pulse atom interferometry based on the $5\mathrm{S} - 6\mathrm{P}$ blue transitions of $^{87}$Rb that provides an increase by a factor $\sim 2$ of the interferometer phase due to…
Although Rydberg atom-based electric field sensing provides key advantages over traditional antenna-based detection, it remains limited by the need for a local oscillator (LO) for low-field and phase resolved detection. In this work, we…
We examine energy level-crossings of fine-structure (FS) levels in the heavier highly charged ions (HCIs) with $d^6$ and $d^8$ configurations. From the analysis, we find that some of these HCIs are tailor-made for atomic clocks with quality…
Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a clock at a higher gravitational potential will tick faster than an otherwise identical clock at a lower potential, an effect known as the gravitational redshift. Here we perform a…
We present a modified version of the Judd-Ofelt theory, which describes the intensities of f-f transitions for trivalent lanthanide ions (Ln$^{3+}$) in solids. In our model, the properties of the dopant are calculated with well-established…
We present a method to calculate the natural line width and energy dependent line shape due to fluorescence decay of core excited atoms within a full relativistic multi-reference configuration interaction theory. The atomic absorption lines…
Precision measurements with atoms and molecules can search for subtle violations of time-reversal symmetry (T) in nuclei, and thereby probe a variety of new physics models. We present a detailed scheme for a nuclear T-violation search…
We present a new platform facilitating quantum logic control of polar molecular ions in a segmented ring ion trap, paving the way for precision measurements. This approach focuses on achieving near-unity state preparation and detection, as…
The potential energy curves for molecular ions up to $N_2^{4+}$ are calculated in an ab initio manner using the multi configurational self-consistent field method. Specifically, we implement in an automatic way a previously used double loop…
A full density-matrix simulation is performed for optical deflection of a barium monofluoride ($^{138}$Ba$^{19}$F) beam using the bichromatic force, which employs pairs of counter-propagating laser beams that are offset in frequency. We…
In this work, we propose an efficient and accurate computational method to evaluate the many-potential $\alpha\left(Z\alpha\right)^{n\ge3}$ vacuum polarization density of hydrogen-like atoms within the finite-basis approximation of the…