Spectroscopy of Radioactive Molecules

Our work on the spectroscopy of RaF and RaOH molecules is featured in Physics magazine.

Our collaborators at Caltech (Hutzler group) produced and performed high-resolution spectroscopy on cold radioactive $^{226}$RaF, $^{226}$RaOH, and $^{226}$RaOD molecules in a tabletop cryogenic apparatus, starting from just 10–50 μCi samples of $^{226}$Ra. See the paper here!

Radium’s octupole-deformed (“pear-shaped”) nucleus can enhance sensitivity to nuclear symmetry violation by more than three orders of magnitude compared with spherical nuclei. Combining this enhancement with laser-coolable molecules opens a route toward highly controlled searches for physics beyond the Standard Model.