Prospect for precision quantum logic spectroscopy of vibrational overtone transitions in molecular oxygen ions

Understand

Precision spectroscopy has been the driving force for progress of our physical understanding and still is a promising tool for the investigation of new physics.

• Molecules offer transitions which allow tests that are not possible in atomic systems.
• However, usually precision spectroscopy of molecules is challenging due to the lack of cycling transitions for state preparation and state detection.
• For molecular ions, this obstacle can be overcome by quantum logic spectroscopy, where dissipation for state preparation and detection is provided by a co-trapped atomic ion exploiting the shared eigenstates of motion.