Precise Determination of Excited State Rotational Constants and Black-Body Thermometry in Coulomb Crystals of Ca$^+$ and CaH$^+$

TL;DR

This study achieves high-precision rovibronic spectroscopy of CaH$^+$ ions in Coulomb crystals, determining excited state constants and using rotational spectra to measure local black-body radiation temperature.

Contribution

It provides the first high-resolution measurements of excited state rotational constants for CaH$^+$ and demonstrates in-situ black-body thermometry using molecular ion spectra.

Findings

Precise excited state rotational constants for CaH$^+$ obtained.

Black-body radiation temperature measured via rotational population analysis.

Record resolution of rovibronic transitions in Coulomb crystal environment.

Abstract

We present high-resolution rovibronic spectroscopy of calcium monohydride molecular ions (CaH$^+$) co-trapped in a Coulomb crystal with calcium ions ($^{40}$Ca$^+$), focusing on rotational transitions in the $|X^1\Sigma^+, \nu" = 0> \rightarrow |A^1\Sigma^+, \nu' = 2>$ manifold. By resolving individual P and R branch transitions with record precision and using Fortrat analysis, we extract key spectroscopic constants for the excited state $|A^1\Sigma^+, \nu' = 2>$, specifically, the band origin, the rotational constant, and the centrifugal correction. Additionally, we demonstrate the application of high-resolution rotational spectroscopy of CaH$^+$ presented here as an in-situ probe of local environmental temperature. We correlate the relative amplitudes of the observed transitions to the underlying thermalized ground-state rotational population distribution and extract the black-body radiation (BBR) temperature.