Abstract
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 C2Π 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.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 2201 |
Journal | Nature communications |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 2021 |
Funding
Development of dissociative analysis techniques were funded by NSF Grant No. PHY-1806861, and development of state control for super rotor states was funded by ONR, Grant No. N00014-17-1-2258. A.G.S.O.-F acknowledges S\u00E3o Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP, 2020/08553-2) and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient\u00EDfico e Tecnol\u00F3gico (CNPq) of Brazil (306830/2018-3). A.P.L.B and A.G.S.O.-F thank the Coordena\u00E7\u00E3o de Aperfei\u00E7oamento de Pessoal de N\u00EDvel Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Chemistry
- General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
- General Physics and Astronomy