Atomic and Molecular Physics — Computational Electronic Structure Methods — Heavy Atoms and Molecules for Precision Measurements — Bonds in Hybrid Lanthanide Molecules — Scattering Among Ultracold Atoms

Research Summary
Svetlana Kotochigova’s theoretical research is at the interface of Atomic, Molecular and Nuclear Physics. Her quantitative quantum-mechanical modeling of the interactions and collisions among laser-cooled atoms and molecules is geared towards exploring spectroscopic properties of highly magnetic lanthanide molecules and determining electronic properties of molecules that contain a radioactive isotope with an octupole deformed nucleus. Kotochigova performs high accuracy relativistic electronic-structure calculations relying on state-of-the-art computational chemistry tools such as the Dirac computational suite and coupled-cluster theory to improve the treatment of nonadiabatic effects of molecules containing heavy atoms and to determine the electronic enhancement factor multiplying the nuclear Schiff moment originated from the deformed nuclei. 

Education
PHD, Saint Petersburg University RF, 1986
MS,  Saint Petersburg University RF,  1982

Selected Publications

  • P. D. Gregory, L. M. Fernley, A. Li Tao, S. L. Bromley, J. Stepp, Z. Zhang, S. Kotochigova, K. R. A. Hazzard and S. L. Cornish, Second-scale rotational coherence and dipolar interactions in a gas of ultracold polar molecules. Nature Physics, 20 415-421 (2024)
  • H. Li, M. Li, A. Petrov, E. Tiesinga, and S. Kotochigova, Quantum Control of Atom-Ion Charge Exchange via Light-Induced Conical Intersections. The Journal of Physical Chemistry A 127, 5979-5985 (2023)
  • Klos J, Li H, Tiesinga E, Kotochigova S. Prospects for assembling ultracold radioactive molecules from laser-cooled atoms. New Journal of Physics (2022) 
  • Z. Qin, W-R Lee, B. DeMarco, B. Gadway, S. Kotochigova, and V. W. Scarola, Quantifying entanglement in cluster states built with error-prone interactions. Physical Review Research 3, 043118 (2021).
  • Tiesinga E, Klos J, Li M, Petrov A, Kotochigova S. Relativistic aspects of orbital and magnetic anisotropies in the chemical bonding and structure of lanthanide molecules. New Journal of Physics. 23, 085007 (2021) 

Awards

  • Fellow of the American Physical Society (since 2012)

Personal Website - LINK