We are building an experiment to search for the electron's electric dipole moment in laser-cooled and trapped polyatomic molecules. These molecules offer robust systematic error rejection via internal co-magnetometer states, and provide a route to explore PeV-scale CP-violating physics.
“Polyatomic molecules give us life and reasons to live”
Peter van der Straten and Hal Metcalf
Atoms and Molecules Interacting with Light
Support and Funding
6 March 2023
Paper on molecular repump spectroscopy submitted to the arXiv.
15 February 2023
YbOH Zeeman-Sisyphus deceleration paper published in Phys. Rev. A
22 January 2023
Paper on quantum control in trapped polyatomic molecules for eEDM searches posted to arXiv.
11 January 2023
Paper on characterizing the YbOH bending mode submitted to the arXiv.
19 October 2022
YbOH Zeeman-Sisyphus deceleration paper posted to the arXiv.
29 August 2022
Optical trapping of CaOH in bending mode posted to the arXiv.
3 August 2022
SrOH branching ratio published in Phys. Rev. A.
23 May 2022
SrOH branching ratio posted on the arXiv.
20 December 2021
Paper on Zeeman-Sisyphus Deceleration of Molecular Beams published in Physical Review Letters.
7 September 2021
Paper on Zeeman-Sisyphus Deceleration of Molecular Beams posted on the arXiv.
3 September 2021
Vibronic branching theory + experiment paper published in The Journal of Chemical Physics.
29 June 2021
Fine and hyperfine interactions in 171YbOH and 173YbOH paper published in the Journal of Chemical Physics.
22 May 2021
Vibronic branching theory + experiment paper posted on the arXiv.
12 February 2021
Paper on the laser spectroscopy of ytterbium monomethoxide (YbOCH3) published in Phys. Rev. A
11 February 2021
YbOH axionlike particle sensitivity paper published in Phys. Rev. A
2 December 2020
Paper on the laser spectroscopy of ytterbium monomethoxide (YbOCH3) posted on the arXiv
4 May 2020
Our recent results were featured in Physics World.
31 March 2020
Branching ratio paper published in special issue of Journal Of Chemical Physics A
26 Feb 2020
Learn more about the motivation for some of our research in this Minute Physics video about the missing anti-matter in the universe.
19 Feb 2020
Chemical enhancement and laser cooling papers published in New Journal of Physics.
14 Feb 2020
YbOH branching ratio paper put on the arXiv.
1 Feb 2020
Thank you to the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for funding our research!
22 November 2019
Field-free, Stark, and Zeeman spectroscopy of YbOH published in PRA.
25 October 2019
YbOH arXiv paper double feature!
19 April 2019
YbOH effective internal field paper published in PRA.
10 Jan 2019
Theoretical calculation of electron EDM sensitivity in YbOH and BaOH posted to arXiv.
20 November 2018
YbOH rotational spectrum published in Chemical Physics Letters.
7 October 2018
We put a paper on the arXiv describing some measurements of the rotational structure of the YbOH ground state. These measurements were performed at ASU using a supersonic beam of YbOH.
23 July 2018
Website goes live!