Precisely spun super rotors.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33850116.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-22342-6 and PMC identifier 8044131.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Improved optical control of molecular quantum states promises new applications including chemistry in the quantum regime, precision tests of fundamental physics, and quantum information processing. While much work has sought to prepare ground state molecules, excited states are also of interest. Here, we demonstrate a broadband optical approach to pump trapped SiO<sup>+</sup> molecules into pure super rotor ensembles maintained for many minutes. Super rotor ensembles pumped up to rotational state N = 67, corresponding to the peak of a 9400 K distribution, had a narrow N spread comparable to that of a few-kelvin sample, and were used for spectroscopy of the previously unobserved C<sup>2</sup>Π state. Significant centrifugal distortion of super rotors pumped up to N = 230 allowed probing electronic structure of SiO<sup>+</sup> stretched far from its equilibrium bond length.