The radioactive radium-225 (
225Ra) atom is a favorable case to search for a permanent electric dipole moment (EDM). Due to its strong nuclear octupole deformation and large atomic mass,
225Ra is particularly sensitive to interactions in the nuclear medium that violate both time-reversal symmetry and parity. We have developed a cold-atom technique to study the spin precession of
225Ra atoms held in an optical dipole trap, and demonstrated the principle of this method by completing the first measurement of its atomic EDM, reaching an upper limit of
∣d(
225Ra)
∣ $
We theoretically investigate the properties of highly polar diatomic molecules containing
2S-state transition-metal atoms. We calculate potential energy curves, permanent electric dipole moments, spectroscopic constants, and leading long-range dispersion-interaction coefficients for molecules consisting of either a Cu or Ag atom interacting with an alkali-metal (Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs, Fr) or alkaline-earth-metal (Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ra) atom. We use ab initio electronic structure methods, such as the coupled cluster and configuration interaction ones, with large Gaussian basis sets and small-core relativistic-energy-consistent pseudopotentials. We predict that the studied molecules in the ground electronic state are strongly bound with highly polarized covalent or ionic bonds resulting in very large permanent electric dipole moments. We find that highly excited vibrational levels have maximal electric dipole moments, e.g., exceeding 13 D for CsAg and 6 D for BaAg. Results for
Cu2,Ag2, and CuAg are also reported. The studied molecules may find application in ultracold dipolar many-body physics, controlled chemistry, or precision measurement experiments.
In this paper, we investigate light shifts of heavy alkaline earth elements barium (Ba) and radium (Ra), which are interesting for optical lattice clocks and for permanent electric dipole moment searches. Detailed knowledge is required in the design of efficient loading of atoms from a magneto-optical trap into an optical dipole trap, to facilitate Doppler cooling while trapping and to achieve longer lifetimes of the trapped atoms with reduced heating rates. The wavelength dependence of light shifts of the n s 2 1 S 0 ground state, the n s n p 3 P 1 and n s( n − 1)d 1 D 2 excited states in barium ( n = 6) and the n s 2 1 S 0 ground state, the n s n p 3 P 1 and n s( n − 1)d 3 D 2 excited states in radium ( n = 7) are calculated. Several magic wavelengths in the visible and infrared regions accessible with commercial lasers for optical dipole trapping of Ba and Ra are identified.