Stark quenching of rovibrational states of H2+ due to motion in a magnetic field

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a magnetic field causes motional electric fields in H2+ ions, enabling dipole transitions that significantly shorten the lifetimes of excited rovibrational states, aiding high-precision spectroscopy.

Contribution

It calculates field-induced spontaneous decay rates for rovibrational states of H2+ in magnetic fields, demonstrating a method to accelerate decay for spectroscopic applications.

Findings

Lifetimes of excited states can be reduced by 1-3 orders of magnitude.

High magnetic fields and large cyclotron orbits enhance decay rates.

Facilitates high-precision CPT symmetry tests with H2+ ions.

Abstract

The motional electric field experienced by an H2+ ion moving in a magnetic field induces an electric dipole, so that one-photon dipole transitions between rovibrational states become allowed. Field induced spontaneous decay rates are calculated for a wide range of states. For an ion stored in a high-field (B ~ 10 T) Penning trap, it is shown that the lifetimes of excited rovibrational states can be shortened by typically 1-3 orders of magnitude by placing the ion in a large cyclotron orbit. This can greatly facilitate recently proposed [E. G. Myers, Phys. Rev. A 98, 010101 (2018)] high-precision spectroscopic measurements on H2+ and its antimatter counterpart for tests of CPT symmetry.