Antonov Ivan O, Stollenwerk Patrick R, Venkataramanababu Sruthi, de Lima Batista Ana P, de Oliveira-Filho Antonio G S, Odom Brian C
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
Applied Physics program, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
Nat Commun. 2021 Apr 13;12(1):2201. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-22342-6.
Improved optical control of molecular quantum states promises new applications including chemistry in the quantum regime, precision tests of fundamental physics, and quantum information processing. While much work has sought to prepare ground state molecules, excited states are also of interest. Here, we demonstrate a broadband optical approach to pump trapped SiO molecules into pure super rotor ensembles maintained for many minutes. Super rotor ensembles pumped up to rotational state N = 67, corresponding to the peak of a 9400 K distribution, had a narrow N spread comparable to that of a few-kelvin sample, and were used for spectroscopy of the previously unobserved CΠ state. Significant centrifugal distortion of super rotors pumped up to N = 230 allowed probing electronic structure of SiO stretched far from its equilibrium bond length.
分子量子态光学控制的改进有望带来新的应用，包括量子体系中的化学、基础物理的精确测试以及量子信息处理。尽管许多工作致力于制备基态分子，但激发态也备受关注。在此，我们展示了一种宽带光学方法，可将捕获的SiO分子泵浦到能维持数分钟的纯超级转子系综中。泵浦至转动量子数N = 67（对应于9400 K分布的峰值）的超级转子系综，其N值分布狭窄，与几开尔文温度的样品相当，并用于对之前未观测到的CΠ态进行光谱分析。泵浦至N = 230的超级转子出现显著的离心畸变，这使得我们能够探测远离平衡键长拉伸的SiO的电子结构。
