1. Radiative lifetime of the A 2{\Pi}1/2 state in RaF with relevance to laser cooling
- Author
-
Athanasakis-Kaklamanakis, M., Wilkins, S. G., Lassègues, P., Lalanne, L., Reilly, J. R., Ahmad, O., Au, M., Bai, S. W., Berbalk, J., Bernerd, C., Borschevsky, A., Breier, A. A., Chrysalidis, K., Cocolios, T. E., de Groote, R. P., Fajardo-Zambrano, C. M., Flanagan, K. T., Franchoo, S., Ruiz, R. F. Garcia, Hanstorp, D., Heinke, R., Imgram, P., Koszorús, A., Kyuberis, A. A., Lim, J., Liu, Y. C., Lynch, K. M., McGlone, A., Mei, W. C., Neyens, G., Nies, L., Oleynichenko, A. V., Raggio, A., Rothe, S., Skripnikov, L. V., Smets, E., Borne, B. van den, Warbinek, J., Wessolek, J., Yang, X. F., and Collaboration, the ISOLDE
- Subjects
Physics - Atomic Physics ,Nuclear Experiment - Abstract
The radiative lifetime of the $A$ $^2 \Pi_{1/2}$ (v=0) state in radium monofluoride (RaF) is measured to be 35(1) ns. The lifetime of this state and the related decay rate $\Gamma = 2.86(8) \times 10^7$ $s^{-1}$ are of relevance to the laser cooling of RaF via the optically closed $A$ $^2 \Pi_{1/2} \leftarrow X$ $^2\Sigma_{1/2}$ transition, which makes the molecule a promising probe to search for new physics. RaF is found to have a comparable photon-scattering rate to homoelectronic laser-coolable molecules. Thanks to its highly diagonal Franck-Condon matrix, it is expected to scatter an order of magnitude more photons than other molecules when using just 3 cooling lasers, before it decays to a dark state. The lifetime measurement in RaF is benchmarked by measuring the lifetime of the $8P_{3/2}$ state in Fr to be 83(3) ns, in agreement with literature., Comment: Accepted as a Letter in Physical Review A; 8 pages of main text, 5 pages of supplemental material
- Published
- 2024