University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Progress toward ground-state sodium-rubidium molecules

Highman, Michael A.

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HIGHMAN-DISSERTATION-2022.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/116140

Description

Title
Progress toward ground-state sodium-rubidium molecules
Author(s)
Highman, Michael A.
Issue Date
2022-05-12
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Gadway, Bryce
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
DeMarco, Brian L
Committee Member(s)
  • Goldschmidt, Elizabeth
  • Chitambar, Eric
Department of Study
Physics
Discipline
Physics
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • physics
  • amo
  • atomic
  • molecular
  • optical
  • quantum
  • gas
  • gases
  • molecules
  • spectroscopy
  • laser
  • coils
  • Feshbach
  • quantum simulation, sodium, rubidium
Abstract
In the last decade, ultracold polar molecules have emerged as one of the most exciting experimental platforms for the discovery of new physics and chemistry. Their complex internal structure, comprised of many kinds of states at vastly different energy scales, makes them well suited for a wide variety of scientific applications. In particular, ultracold molecules are promising candidates for tests of fundamental physics, quantum simulation and computation, and quantum chemistry. In this thesis we report on experimental progress in our lab toward the creation of ro-vibrational ground state sodium-rubidium (^{23}Na ^{87}Rb) molecules. We explain the roadmap to their creation by first cooling ^{23}Na and ^{87}Rb gases, associating them into loosely bound molecules via the use of a Feshbach resonance, and lastly bringing them to their ro-vibrational ground state using Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP). Additionally, we detail a parallel theoretical effort to address the ability to nondestructively image rotationally excited ultracold molecules. This is done by using the molecule's inherent birefringence to rotate the polarization of a probing laser field. We thoroughly analyze the molecular states within the ground and first electronic excited potentials of ^{23}Na ^{87}Rb and summarize the effectiveness of our proposed imaging scheme by choosing three promising probe laser wavelengths. Upon realization of ground state ^{23}Na ^{87}Rb, we aim to demonstrate our imaging technique. We also discuss the next immediate experimental steps toward the realization of this goal.
Graduation Semester
2022-08
Type of Resource
Thesis
Handle URL
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/116140
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2022 Michael A. Highman

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