Team

Precision measurements with molecules

Scientific activity

The Precision Measurements with Molecules team is at the forefront of frequency metrology and cold molecule research. It explores the prospects offered by molecules and their many degrees of freedom for precision measurements and fundamental physics tests, for exploring the limits of the Standard Model, for the development of new-generation frequency standards, or for the realization of qubits and future simulators or quantum sensors. The experiments envisaged require an advanced level of control – high-sensitivity addressing and detection of individual rovibrational states, long coherence times, cooling of internal and external degrees of freedom… – and require highly accurate measurements of molecular resonance frequencies, particularly in the infrared.

The team is currently concentrating its efforts on the development of very high-precision devices for frequency metrology, quantum technologies and fundamental physics tests based on the production of gaseous samples of molecules cooled to ~1 K, the use of ultra-stable lasers calibrated to the primary frequency standards of the French metrology institute, and the quantum engineering of internal molecular rovibrational states using metrology-grade RF, microwave and optical fields.

© Cyril Fresillon, LPL, FIRST-TF, CNRS Photothèque, 2018.

Figure: Optical device dedicated to the extension of sub-Doppler spectroscopy techniques of frequency metrology to molecular systems of increasing complexity for the realization of frequency standards and new-generation quantum sensors.