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
24 February 2024
SrOH magneto-optical trapping paper published in PRL.
12 November 2024
Thermal SrOH emission paper published in PRA.
8 September 2024
SrOH magneto-optical trapping paper posted to the arXiv.
13 July 2024
Thermal SrOH emission paper posted to the arXiv.
19 January 2024
Paper about enhancing atom-molecule collisions via atomic Rydberg excitation published in Phys. Rev. Lett.
9 November 2023
Paper on Quantum control of trapped polyatomic molecules for eEDM searches published in Science.
8 November 2023
Paper on entanglement-enhanced EDM measurement published in Phys. Rev. Lett.
31 October 2023
Paper on Engineering Field-Insensitive Molecular Clock Transitions for Symmetry Violation Searches was published in Phys. Rev. Lett, and featured in Physics Magazine.
31 July 2023
Paper on characterizing the YbOH bending mode published in the New Journal of Physics.
17 July 2023
Paper on "Optical cycling in polyatomic molecules with complex hyperfine structure" published in PRA.
12 July 2023
Proposal for quantum metrology for EDM searches posted to the arXiv.
5 July 2023
Paper about enhancing atom-molecule collisions via Rydberg excitation posted to the arXiv.
29 June 2023
Polyatomic laser cooling intensity-borrowing paper has been published.
2 June 2023
Paper on molecular repump spectroscopy published in Phys. Rev. A as an Editor's Suggestion.
1 June 2023
Polyatomic laser cooling intensity-borrowing paper posted on the arXiv.
4 May 2023
Paper describing the design of a "Nonresonant cavity for multipass laser intensity buildup" was published in Applied Optics.
27 April 2023
Paper on "Optical cycling in polyatomic molecules with complex hyperfine structure" posted to the arXiv.
26 April 2023
Paper on "Engineering field-insensitive molecular clock transitions for symmetry violation searches" posted to the arXiv.
14 April 2023
Paper on optical trapping of CaOH in bending mode published in Phys. Rev. Lett.
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!