Atomic Physics
We have theoretically and experimentally studied the dispersive signal of the Rydberg atomic electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) - Autler-Townes (AT) splitting spectra obtained using amplitude modulation of the microwave (MW)…
We observed periodic optical pulses from an Er:YSO crystal during irradiating with an continuous-wave excitation laser. We refer to this new phenomenon as "periodic super-radiance". This periodicity can be understood qualitatively by a…
Conical intersections are crossing points or lines between two or more adiabatic electronic potential energy surfaces in the multi-dimensional coordinate space of colliding atoms and molecules. Conical intersections and corresponding…
We report a method for producing ultracold HD+ molecular ions populated in a rotational ground state in an ion trap based on [2+1'] resonance-enhanced threshold photoionization (RETPI) and sympathetic cooling with the laser-cooled Be$^+$…
We analyze electric fields in ion sources generated by quasi-continuous photo-ionization of cold Rb atoms trapped in the focal spot of a near-concentric, in-vacuum cavity for 1064-nm laser light. Ion streams are extracted with an external…
We introduce well-separated $^{87}$Rb$^+$ ions into an atomic ensemble by microwave ionization of Rydberg excitations and realize single-shot imaging of the individual ions with an exposure time of 1 $\mu$s. This imaging sensitivity is…
In interatomic Coulombic electron capture, the capture of a free electron at an atomic center is accompanied by the radiationless transfer of the excess energy to a neighboring atom of different species, leading to ionization of the latter.…
Recent experiments have demonstrated direct cooling and trapping of diatomic and triatomic molecules in magneto-optical traps (MOTs). However, even the best molecular MOTs to date still have density $10^{-5}$ times smaller than in typical…
We present new photonics and electronics packages recently developed by M Squared Lasers specifically tailored for scalable neutral atom quantum computing; a high power 1064 nm system for scalable qubit number, a phase locked system for…
We report on the realization of a hemispherical optical cavity with a finesse of F = 13000 sustaining inter-cavity powers of 10 kW, which we operate in a closed-cycle cryostat vacuum system close to 4 Kelvin. This was designed and built…
We demonstrate Rydberg atom-based radio frequency sensing with a colinear three-photon scheme in a room temperature cesium vapor cell that minimizes residual Doppler broadening of the probe laser absorption feature. A sub-200 kHz spectral…
We observe a weakly allowed optical transition of atomic ytterbium from the ground state to the metastable state $4f^{13}5d6s^2 \: (J=2)$ for all five bosonic and two fermionic isotopes with resolved Zeeman and hyperfine structures. This…
Recently, upper bounds on the static time-reversal ($\mathcal{T}$) and spatial parity ($\mathcal{P}$)-violating electron electric dipole moment ($e$EDM) and dimensionless constant characterizing the strength of the…
The "proton radius puzzle" is the 7-standard-deviations difference of the charge radius of the proton as determined from the Lamb shift in electronic hydrogen and elastic electron scattering off the proton on the one side and the high…
Photoelectron spectroscopy in intense laser fields has proven to be a powerful tool for providing detailed insights into molecular structure. The ionizing molecular orbital, however, has not been reconstructed from the photoelectron…
We demonstrate a controllable depletion of the nitrogen buffer gas pressure in a micro-machined cesium (Cs) vapor cell from the dynamic heating of an alkali dispenser pill. When the alkali source is laser activated, the gettering compounds…
The proton radius puzzle is known as the discrepancy of the proton radius, obtained from muonic hydrogen spectroscopy (obtained as being roughly equal to 0.84fm), and the proton radius obtained from (ordinary) hydrogen spectroscopy where a…
Measurements of the 0--0 hyperfine resonant frequencies of ground-state $^{85}$Rb atoms show a nonlinear dependence on the pressure of the buffer gases Ar, Kr, and Xe. The nonlinearities are similar to those previously observed with…
At very low energies, a light neutral particle above a horizontal surface can experience quantum reflection. The quantum reflection holds the particle against gravity and leads to gravitational quantum states (GQS). So far, GQS were only…
Alkali-metal atomic magnetometry is widely used due to its high sensitivity and cryogen-free operation. However, when operating in geomagnetic field, it suffers from heading errors originating from nonlinear Zeeman (NLZ) splittings and…