Towards assembly of YbCaF for a precision measurement of the magnetic quadrupole moment of the Yb-173 nucleus

Measurements of CP-violating electromagnetic moments in nuclei could help to discover new physics that can explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe. We are developing a new platform to search for the CP-violating magnetic quadrupole moment of the Yb-173 nucleus using YbCaF molecules. We aim to separately laser cool Yb-173 atoms and CaF molecules, and then associate them into a triatomic molecule using a Feshbach resonance. The resultant YbCaF molecules will have high sensitivity to new physics. In addition, the rotational energy level structure of the bent triatomic molecule exhibits very closely spaced parity doublets, enabling powerful techniques for uncovering and rejecting many forms of systematic error in our future measurement. We report on our progress in realising this new experimental platform and discuss some of the challenges we expect to face.