Production and spectroscopy of cold radioactive molecules

TL;DR

This paper reports the synthesis, cooling, and high-resolution spectroscopy of radioactive radium molecules, enabling new precision measurements and quantum sensing applications with limited radioactive material.

Contribution

It introduces a novel tabletop method for producing and analyzing cold radioactive molecules, combining radioactive target production, cryogenic chemistry, and laser spectroscopy.

Findings

Successful synthesis of radium monohydroxide, monodeuteroxide, and monofluoride.

Effective cryogenic cooling of radioactive molecules in a lab setting.

Establishment of a versatile approach for molecular quantum sensing of exotic nuclei.

Abstract

Molecules with heavy, radioactive nuclei promise extreme sensitivity to fundamental nuclear and particle physics. However, these nuclei are available in limited quantities, which challenges their use in precision measurements. Here we demonstrate the gas-phase synthesis, cryogenic cooling, and high-resolution laser spectroscopy of radium monohydroxide, monodeuteroxide, and monofluoride molecules ($^{226}$RaOH, $^{226}$RaOD, and $^{226}$RaF) in a tabletop apparatus by combining novel radioactive target production protocols, optically driven chemistry in a cryogenic buffer gas, and low-background spectroscopic detection methods. The molecules are cooled in the lab frame, creating conditions that are the same starting points as many current molecular precision measurement and quantum information experiments. This approach is readily applied to a wide range of species and establishes key capabilities for molecular quantum sensing of exotic nuclei.