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Molecular lattice clock with long vibrational coherence

Nature Physics volume 15, pages 1118–1122 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Atomic lattice clocks have spurred numerous ideas for tests of fundamental physics, detection of general relativistic effects and studies of interacting many-body systems. On the other hand, molecular structure and dynamics offer rich energy scales that are at the heart of new protocols in precision measurement and quantum information science. Here, we demonstrate a fundamentally distinct type of lattice clock that is based on vibrations in diatomic molecules, and present coherent Rabi oscillations between weakly and deeply bound molecules that persist for tens of milliseconds. This control is made possible by a state-insensitive magic lattice trap that weakly couples to molecular vibronic resonances and enhances the coherence time of light-induced clock state superpositions by several orders of magnitude. The achieved quality factor Q = 8 × 1011 results from 30 Hz narrow resonances for a 25 THz clock transition in Sr2 molecules. Our technique of extended coherent manipulation is applicable to long-term storage of quantum information in qubits based on ultracold polar molecules, while the vibrational clock enables precise probes of interatomic forces, tests of Newtonian gravitation at ultrashort range and model-independent searches for electron-to-proton mass ratio variations.

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Fig. 1: Vibrational molecular lattice clock.
Fig. 2: Magic lattice for the molecular clock.
Fig. 3: Coherent control of molecular clock states.
Fig. 4: Magic intensity ratio for a two-photon clock transition.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of the study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge support from NSF grant no. PHY-1349725 and ONR grant no. N00014-17-1-2246, as well as Polish National Science Center grant no. 2016/20/W/ST4/00314.

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Author notes

  1. C. Liedl

    Present address: Department of Physics, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    S. S. Kondov, C.-H. Lee, K. H. Leung, C. Liedl & T. Zelevinsky

  2. Quantum Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

    I. Majewska & R. Moszynski

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Contributions

S.S.K., C.-H.L., K.H.L., C.L. and T.Z. designed and performed the experiments and interpreted the data. I.M. and R.M. carried out the theoretical analysis.

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Correspondence to T. Zelevinsky.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information: Nature Physics thanks David Leibrandt, Nicola Poli and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–3.

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Kondov, S.S., Lee, CH., Leung, K.H. et al. Molecular lattice clock with long vibrational coherence. Nat. Phys. 15, 1118–1122 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0632-3

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