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Published on: February 10, 2020
Laser Spectroscopy of Aromatic Molecules with Optical Cycling Centers: Strontium(I) Phenoxides
Guanming Lao1, Guo-Zhu Zhu1, Claire E Dickerson2
1Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California90095, United States.
Abstract:
We report the production and spectroscopic characterization of strontium(I) phenoxide (SrOC6H5 or SrOPh) and variants featuring electron-withdrawing groups designed to suppress vibrational excitation during spontaneous emission from the electronically excited state. Optical cycling closure of these species, which is the decoupling of the vibrational state changes from spontaneous optical decay, is found by dispersed laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy to be high, in accordance with theoretical predictions. A high-resolution, rotationally resolved laser excitation spectrum is recorded for SrOPh, allowing the estimation of spectroscopic constants and identification of candidate optical cycling transitions for future work. The results confirm the promise of strontium phenoxides for laser cooling and quantum state detection at the single-molecule level.
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