Upgrades for the Search for the Radium Electric Dipole Moment

Permanent atomic electric dipole moments (EDMs) violate parity (P), time reversal (T), and combined charge-conjugation and parity transformation (CP) under CPT symmetry. Radium-225 is expected to have an enhanced EDM because its nucleus is octupole-deformed. In the Ra EDM experiment, atoms are vaporized, slowed, and trapped between two high voltage electrodes. For the imminent second-generation measurements, we increased the applied electric field by discharge-conditioning a pair of large-grain niobium electrodes. The new electrodes and several complementary upgrades will help improve our experimental sensitivity by more than two orders of magnitude. Additionally, the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) will be capable of producing Radium-225 when it is fully operational. To characterize the harvesting efficiency of FRIB radium isotopes for an EDM experiment, we are developing a laser induced fluorescence measurement that will count stable, surrogate atoms emitted from an FRIB-prepared oven.