Budker Group - Helmholtz Institute, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz

Two lowest-energy odd-parity atomic levels of the radioactive element actinium were observed in a laser-spectroscopy experiment at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, resolving a long-standing puzzle of “missing” atomic states predicted by theory. The properties of these states (exact energies, lifetime, and hyperfine structure) were studied by the experimental team and found to […]

High field (HF) NMR is regularly used for chemical reaction monitoring, which has tremendous applications in industry, biology and medicine. In zero- to ultralow-field (ZULF) NMR we perform an unorthodox type of NMR experiment which does not require the usual large magnetic field. In high field NMR, observing complex media inevitably leads to broad spectral lines, limiting the […]

Press-release. Article. arXiv link.

 Felipe, the first PhD graduate from our group in Mainz, has received the prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship for a period of two years to develop research at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille in France. Felipe will build a prototype of a laser-guidestar wavefront sensor, for telescopes like the ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). This prototype will allow to test new technologies […]

We demonstrate a cheap and scalable way to form the biomolecule fumarate (a type of chemical compound) from an enriched form of hydrogen gas, which opens a door to studying metabolism and cell death in vivo via magnetic resonance imaging. The research has been featured in a JACS Spotlight: Hyperpolarized Hydrogen Empowers a New Biomarker Article URL: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.9b10094 […]

A short video about the last WOPM:

The interview in English is here [1], and here [2] in German. [1] https://www.compamed-tradefair.com/en/Interviews/Interviews/Quantum_technology_transforms_industry_and_technology [2] https://www.compamed.de/cgi-bin/md_compamed/lib/pub/tt.cgi?oid=61285&lang=1&ticket=g_u_e_s_t

In the rapidly developing battery technology, is it desirable to determine the quality of battery cells by nondestructive measurements. We demonstrate the use of atomic magnetometry to detect states of battery charge [1]. We do so by creating a map of the weak induced magnetic fields around a Li-ion battery cell as a function of its […]

Neutron skin in a nucleus is a measure of the difference between the nucleus’ neutron and proton density root mean square radii. We show how atomic parity-violation effects are affected by neutron skin in isotopes [1]. Specifically, we calculate the effect in isotopes of Cs, Ba, Sm, Dy, Yb, Pb, Fr, and Ra. We conclude […]

An experiment is measuring the amplitude of dark matter field at a certain location and at a certain time. Suppose no dark matter has been detected. Does this mean that there is no dark matter in the corresponding mass range? Not necessarily if the coherence time of the dark matter field is much longer than […]