Searching for an Exotic Spin-Dependent Interaction between Electrons at the Nanometer Scale with Molecular Rulers

Abstract

We propose that a type of molecular rulers, which contains two electron spins with precisely adjustable distance by varying the length of the shape-persistent polymer chains, can be utilized to constrain the axial-vector mediated interaction between electron spins at the nanometer scale. With measurements of the coupling strengths between two electron spins within different molecular rulers, an improved laboratory bound of exotic dipole-dipole interaction between electrons is established within the force range from 3 to 220 nm. The upper bound of the coupling $g_A^e g_A^e/4\pi\hbar c $ at 200 nm is $|g_A^e g_A^e/4\pi\hbar c| \leq 4.9\times10^{-13}$, which is about 20 times more stringent than previous limits.