Radiative Decay Rate and Branching Fractions of MgF

Published

September 8, 2023

Author(s)

Eric Norrgard, Catherine Cooksey, Stephen Eckel, Nickolas Pilgram, Kayla Rodriguez, Howard W. Yoon, Yuly Andrea Chamorro Mena, Lukáš Pašteka, Anastasia Borschevsky

Abstract

Here we report measured and calculated values of radiative decay rates and vibrational branching fractions for the A$^2\Pi$ state of MgF. The decay rate measurements use time-correlated single photon counting with roughly 1\,\% total uncertainty. Branching-fraction measurements are performed using two calibrated imaging systems to achieve few percent total uncertainty. We use the highly accurate multireference relativistic Fock-space coupled cluster method to calculate the Franck-Condon factors and the spin-orbit multireference configuration interaction method to calculate the transition dipole moments required to determine the decay rates and the branching fractions. The measurements provide a precision benchmark for testing the accuracy of the molecular structure calculations. The determination of the decay rate and vibrational branching fractions can be used to inform future optical cycling and laser cooling schemes for the MgF molecule.

Citation

Physical Review A

Pub Type

Journals

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Citation

Norrgard, E. , Cooksey, C. , Eckel, S. , Pilgram, N. , Rodriguez, K. , Yoon, H. , Chamorro Mena, Y. , Pasteka, L. and Borschevsky, A. (2023), Radiative Decay Rate and Branching Fractions of MgF, Physical Review A, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=936468 (Accessed October 24, 2025)