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Updated: Aug 24, 2026

Piezoreflectance Spectroscopy of Optical Transitions in van der Waals Layered Crystals
Published on: May 22, 2026
Precision Zeeman-Stark spectroscopy of the metastable a1[3Sigma+] state of PbO
1Department of Physics, Yale University, P.O. Box 208120, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8120, USA.
Abstract:
The metastable a(1)[(3)Sigma(+)] state of PbO has been suggested as a suitable system in which to search for the electric dipole moment of the electron. We report here the development of experimental techniques allowing high-sensitivity measurements of Zeeman and Stark effects in this system, similar to those required for such a search. We observe Zeeman quantum beats in fluorescence from a vapor cell of PbO, with shot-noise limited extraction of the quantum beat frequencies, high counting rates, and long coherence times. We argue that improvement in sensitivity to the electron electric dipole moment by at least 2 orders of magnitude appears possible using these techniques.
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