2023/09/06 by Aleksandr Shlykov, Shlykov, Aleksandr, Mikolaj Roguski +3 · 3 citations
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph) #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #Spectroscopy and Laser Applications
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2309.03035
openalex publication_date 2023/09/06 · openalex created_date 2023/09/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This work examines optimized strategies for the preparation of single molecular ions in well-defined rotational quantum states in an ion trap with the example of the molecular nitrogen ion N2+. It advances a two-step approach consisting of an initial threshold-photoionization stage which produces molecular ions with a high probability in the target state, followed by a measurement-based state purification of the sample. For this purpose, a resonance-enhanced threshold photoionization scheme for producing N2+ in its rovibrational ground state proposed by Gardner et al. [Sci. Rep. 9, 506 (2019)] was characterized. The molecular state was measured using a recently developed quantum-non-demolition state-detection method finding a total fidelity of 38(7)% for producing ground-state N2+ under the present experimental conditions. By discarding ions from the trap not found to be in the target state, essentially state-pure samples of single N2+ ions can be generated for subsequent state-specific experiments.