Search for electric dipole moment in ¹²⁹Xe atom using active nuclear spin maser

¹ Department of Physics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Oh-okayama, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8551, Japan
² Department of Physics, University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
³ Cyclotron and Radioisotope Center, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
⁴ Department of Physics, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami-Ohsawa, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan
⁵ Research Core for Extreme Quantum World, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushimanaka, Kita, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
⁶ Institute of Material Structure Science, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), 1-1 Oho, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan
⁷ RIKEN Nishina Center, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
⁸ R-GIRO, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Noji-Higashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577, Japan

^a e-mail: yuichikawa@phys.titech.ac.jp

Published online: 20 March 2014

Abstract

An experimental search for an electric dipole moment in the diamagnetic atom ¹²⁹Xe is in progress through the precision measurement of spin precession frequency using an active nuclear spin maser. A ³He comagnetometer has been incorporated into the active spin maser system in order to cancel out the long-term drifts in the external magnetic field. Also, a double-cell geometry has been adopted in order to suppress the frequency shifts due to interaction with polarized Rb atoms. The first EDM measurement with the ¹²⁹Xe active spin maser and the ³He comagnetometer has been conducted.