4 year PhD position - Laser cooling the helium dimer
This project aims to create the first ultracold gas of a directly laser-cooled homonuclear molecule, the helium dimer He2. Starting from a supersonic beam, novel laser slowing and cooling techniques will be employed to create a trapped dense gas of ultracold molecules. Choosing the He2 molecule constitutes a paradigm change in the field of ultracold molecules, as it will constitute the lightest and simplest molecule ever laser-cooled. This provides a controllable, simple 4-electron system at record low temperature, allowing quantum sensing and precision measurements to test QED and to study the quantum nature of collisions with unprecedented accuracy - while being accessible to highly accurate ab initio computational methods. Precision measurements of He2 Rydberg states will allow QED tests and provide the polarizability of He atoms for a quantum pressure standard.
For more information contact M. Beyer: m.beyer@vu.nl (www.molecularions.com)