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arXiv · 1607.08741

High-resolution mid-infrared spectroscopy of buffer-gas-cooled methyltrioxorhenium molecules

Sean Tokunaga·R. J. Hendricks·M. Tarbutt·B Darquié
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Abstract

We demonstrate cryogenic buffer-gas cooling of gas-phase methyltrioxorhenium (MTO). This molecule is closely related to chiral organometallic molecules where the parity-violating energy differences between enantiomers may be measurable. The molecules are produced with a rotational temperature of approximately 6~K by laser ablation of an MTO pellet inside a cryogenic helium buffer gas cell. Facilitated by the low temperature, we demonstrate absorption spectroscopy of the 10.2~$\mu$m antisymmetric Re=O stretching mode of MTO with a resolution of 8~MHz and a frequency accuracy of 30~MHz. We partially resolve the hyperfine structure and measure the nuclear quadrupole coupling of the excited vibrational state.

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Sean Tokunaga, R. J. Hendricks, M. Tarbutt, B Darquié. 2016-07-29. High-resolution mid-infrared spectroscopy of buffer-gas-cooled methyltrioxorhenium molecules. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630%2Faa6de4

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