Radiative lifetime of the A 2Π1/2 state in RaF with relevance to laser cooling

2024/03/14 by Athanasakis-Kaklamanakis, M., Wilkins, S. G., Lassègues, P. +38 · 1 citation
#Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2403.09336

Abstract

The radiative lifetime of the A ² Π_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 Γ= 2.86(8) × 10⁷ s^-1 are of relevance to the laser cooling of RaF via the optically closed A ² Π_1/2 ← X ²Σ_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.

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