Towards an electron electric dipole moment search with trapped HfF+ molecular ions

ORAL

Abstract

The search for an electron electric dipole moment (eEDM) serves as a sensitive probe for physics beyond the Standard Model. The $^3\Delta_1$ metastable state of the HfF$^+$ molecular ion is a suitable candidate for the eEDM search because of its high effective electric field and potentially long spin coherence times. By performing STIRAP in the presence of a rotating electric field and a magnetic field, we have prepared HfF$^+$ ions in the desired $^3\Delta_1$ states belonging to an eEDM sensitive transition and mapped out relevant spectroscopic parameters. We report our results on the coherent state transfer and spectroscopy of trapped molecular ions in a rotating field.

*This work is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Marsico Research Chair.

Authors

  • Huanqian Loh

    • JILA, NIST and University of Colorado (Boulder)
  • Kevin Cossel

    • JILA, NIST and University of Colorado (Boulder)
  • Kang-Kuen Ni

    • JILA, NIST and University of Colorado (Boulder)
  • Matt Grau

    • JILA, NIST and University of Colorado (Boulder)
  • Daniel Gresh

    • JILA, NIST and University of Colorado (Boulder)
  • Jun Ye

    • JILA, NIST and University of Colorado (Boulder)
  • Eric Cornell

    • JILA, NIST and University of Colorado (Boulder)