MOT beams for laser cooling SrF

Using techniques pioneered in our group, we can laser cool SrF molecules as low as 15 μK

An artistic rendition of an electron

Our group, part of the ACME collaboration, searches for the electron electric dipole moment (EDM). In the past 10 years the experiment has improved the limit on the eEDM by over a factor of 100.

CeNTREX electrostatic quadrupole lens

The electrostatic lens is used to focus the molecular beam of TlF so that it makes it through the apparatus to the detection region.

We moved into our new lab space!

Welcome to the DeMille Group!

We are an atomic/molecular/optical (AMO) physics group at University of Chicago that explores frontiers of molecular, particle, and nuclear physics! Our primary themes of research are:

• Using diatomic molecules as amplifying quantum sensors of fundamental physics
• Developing new methods to produce ultracold polar molecules
• Exploiting strong dipolar interactions between long-lived molecules  

Our particle and nuclear experiments are:
• small enough to fit in a single room
• sensitive enough to
—detect certain new particles with mass >> 1 TeV
—measure poorly-understood properties of the electroweak force

Our Research

electron EDM theory exclusion plot

ACME
electron electric dipole moment search
(leptonic CP violation,
towards understanding cosmological
matter-antimatter asymmetry)

A model of the MOT beams for SrF molecules

Direct laser cooling & trapping
of polar molecules
(towards quantum degeneracy
and a strongly-correlated quantum gas)

Internal Electric Field of the TlF molecule

CeNTREX
proton electric dipole moment search
(hadronic CP violation,
towards understanding cosmological
matter-antimatter asymmetry)

A model of STIRAP, a model for population transfer protocols done in ultracold molecule experiments

Assembling polar molecules
from ultracold atoms
(towards next-generation EDMs
and ultra-polar molecular arrays)

Feynman Diagram showing how the anapole moment arises

ZOMBIES
nuclear anapole moment measurements
(hadronic parity violation,
to measure how the electroweak force
is modified by the strong force)

A model for trapped polar molecules as quantum computers

Miscellaneous projects
(Quantum information processing,
axion dark matter search, etc.)

Recent News

09/26/2023

Welcome to our new undergrad Akiva Davis! Akiva will be working on the molecule assembly experiment

08/16/2023

Our postdoc, Xing Wu, is starting a new job as a professor at FRIB where he’ll be working on pioneering new techniques to make cold molecules and also using radioactive molecules to test fundamental symmetries. Congratulations Xing!

06/08/2023

Welcome to our new undergrads Ryan Rosenthal and Melchior Jean! Both Ryan and Melchior will be working on the molecule assembly experiment

Our Funding

National Science Foundation Logo
Research Corporation Logo
Sloan Foundation Logo
Air Force Office of Scientific Research Logo
Heising-Simons Foundation Logo
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Logo
Northwestern Center for Fundamental Physics Logo
Argonne National Lab Logo
Department of Energy Logo
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