Measurement of the Electric Dipole Moment of <sup>171</sup>Yb Atoms in an Optical Dipole Trap

ORAL

Abstract

The permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) [1] of the 171Yb [2] (I = 1/2) atom is measured with atoms held in an optical dipole trap (ODT). A quantum non-demolition measurement with a spin-detection efficiency of 50% is realized. A systematic effect due to parity mixing induced by a static E field [3] is observed, and is suppressed by averaging between measurements with ODTs in opposite directions. The coherent spin precession time is found to be longer than 100 s. The result shows a sensitivity of E-26 e cm in searching for 171Yb EDM. We describe the progress, challenges, and prospects of the experiment. Through this experiment, we develop atom manipulation techniques and study systematics for a parallel search for the EDM of 225Ra[4,5], a radioactive isotope expected to possess a much larger Schiff moment due to its nuclear octupole deformation.

*This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China through Grants No. 91636215, the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences through Grant No. XDB21010200, and Anhui Initiative in Quantum Information Technologies through Grant No. AHY110000.

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Publication: [1] Chupp, T. E., et al. (2019) 'Electric dipole moments of atoms, molecules, nuclei, and particles', Reviews of Modern Physics, 91(1), pp. 015001.
[2] Dzuba, V. A., Flambaum, V. V. and Ginges, J. S. M. (2007) 'Atomic electric dipole moments of He and Yb induced by nuclear Schiff moments', Physical Review A, 76(3).
[3] Romalis, M. V. and Fortson, E. N. (1999) 'Zeeman frequency shifts in an optical dipole trap used to search for an electric-dipole moment', Physical Review A, 59(6), pp. 4547-4558.
[4] Parker, R. H., et al. (2015) 'First Measurement of the Atomic Electric Dipole Moment of 225Ra', Physical Review Letters, 114(23), pp. 233002.
[5] Bishof, M., et al. (2016) 'Improved limit on the 225Ra electric dipole moment', Physical Review C, 94(2), pp. 025501.

Presenters

  • Tao Zheng

    • University of Science and Technology of China

Authors

  • Tao Zheng

    • University of Science and Technology of China

  • Yang A Yang

    • University of Science and Technology of China

  • Shao-Zheng Wang

    • University of Science and Technology of China

  • Jaideep T Singh

    • Michigan State University

  • Zhuan-Xian Xiong

    • Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan

  • Tian Xia

    • University of Science and Technology of
    • University of Science and Technology of China

  • Zheng-Tian Lu

    • University of Science and Technology of China
    • University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China