Atomic Physics
We present a compact, two-stage atomic beam source that produces a continuous, narrow, collimated and high-flux beam of rubidium atoms with sub-Doppler temperatures in three dimensions, which features very low emission of near-resonance…
We demonstrate for the first time the two-color cooling and trapping of alkaline-earth atoms in a grating magneto-optical trap (gMOT). The trap is formed by a single incident laser beam together with four secondary beams that are generated…
We report on the observation of time-resolved quantum beats in the helium fluorescence from the transition 1s3p -> 1s2s, where the initial state is excited by XUV free-electron laser radiation. The quantum beats originate from the Zeeman…
Molecules containing superheavy atoms can be artificially created to serve as sensitive probes for study of symmetry-violating phenomena. Here, we provide a detailed theoretical study for diatomic molecules containing the superheavy…
The scattering of Rb atoms on an anti-relaxation coating was studied. No significant change in the spin relaxation probability of Rb atoms by single scattering from a tetracontane surface was observed by cooling the film from 305 to 123 K.…
Assemblies of highly excited Rydberg atoms in an ultracold gas can be set into motion by a combination of van-der-Waals and resonant dipole-dipole interactions. Thereby, the collective electronic Rydberg state might change due to…
We describe and demonstrate how 3D magnetic field alignment can be inferred from single absorption images of an atomic cloud. While optically pumped magnetometers conventionally rely on temporal measurement of the Larmor precession of…
Strong-field ionization of polar molecules contains rich dynamical processes such as tunneling, excitation, and Stark shift. These processes occur on a sub-cycle time scale and are difficult to distinguish in ultrafast measurements. Here,…
Trapped ions are one of the most promising platforms for quantum computing due to the longest qubit coherence times and the highest gate fidelities. However, scaling the number of ions (qubits) in a linear Coulomb crystal is the key…
We report a robust method of stabilizing a laser to the frequency of an atomic transition using a hollow cathode lamp. In contrast to the standard dichroic atomic vapor laser lock (DAVLL) method, which uses dichroism induced by a…
Energy levels, magnetic dipole, and electric quadrupole hyperfine structure of the superheavy element rutherfordium (Rf, $Z$=104) and its first three ions are calculated using a combination of the configuration interaction, coupled-cluster…
We study the $^1$S$_0 - ^3$D$_2$ and $^1$S$_0 - ^3$D$_3$ transitions in Cu II and the $^1$S$_0 - ^3$P$^{\rm o}_2$ transition in Yb III as possible candidates for the optical clock transitions. A recently developed version of the…
We demonstrate phase locking of two ultraviolet laser sources by modulating a fundamental infrared laser with 4th-order sidebands using an electro-optic modulator and phase locking of one sideband to a second fundamental infrared laser.…
The last few years have seen rapid progress in the application of laser cooling to molecules. In this review, we examine what kinds of molecules can be laser cooled, how to design a suitable cooling scheme, and how the cooling can be…
Measurements of the electron's electric dipole moment (eEDM) are demanding tests of physics beyond the Standard Model. We describe how ultracold YbF molecules could be used to improve the precision of eEDM measurements by two to three…
Magneto-optical trapping forces for molecules are far weaker than for alkali atoms because the photon scattering rate is reduced when there are multiple ground states, and because of optical pumping into dark states. The force is further…
We present the magnetic Moment Tensor Potentials (mMTPs), a class of machine-learning interatomic potentials, accurately reproducing both vibrational and magnetic degrees of freedom as provided, e.g., from first-principles calculations. The…
The surface integral method for estimating ionic-covalent interactions in diatomic systems been successful in producing cross sections for mutual neutralisation (MN) in reasonable agreement with experimental results for branching fractions…
We demonstrate improved sensitivity of Rydberg electrometry based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) with a ground state repumping laser. Though there are many factors that limit the sensitivity of radio frequency field…
We present a numerical procedure allowing one to extract Feshbach resonance parameters from numerical calculations without relying on approximate fitting procedures. Our approach is based on a simple decomposition of the reactance matrix in…