The ACME collaboration aims to measure the eEDM via Ramsey spectroscopy of a cryogenic beam of ThO molecules in their metastable H state. This thesis describes the launch of this new experimental effort. A set of diode lasers has been built to address all the necessary ThO transitions. The laser frequencies were stabilized to a stable reference laser via a \(Fabry-P\acute{e}rot\) transfer cavity. A measurement of the magnetic dipole moment of the H state has been performed that is complementary to a previous measurement by the collaboration. This value is important for determining the sensitivity of the H state to magnetic fields, which can be a source of noise and systematic errors in the eEDM measurement. Experimental efforts to prepare the coherent superposition of the \(M = \pm1\) Zeeman sublevels in the H,J = 1 state that is the starting point of the eEDM experiment using transitions to the G state resulted in a better understanding of transitions between \(\Omega\)-doublet states in an electric field. This led to a new technique for normalizing out shot-to-shot fluctuations in the molecular beam flux, which has also been demonstrated experimentally. / Physics

This thesis describes the physics, design, and construction of an experiment to measure the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the electron. In the experiment, laser-cooled Cs atoms will be held in an optical dipole force trap in the presence of applied electric and magnetic fields. The signature of an electron EDM is a first-order electric field shift of the Zeeman resonance frequency of the Cs ground state. We present an analysis of the systematic and statistical errors of this experiment, which shows that the experiment should have a sensitivity of the order of 10⁻²⁹ e-cm. We pay particular attention to potential light-shift induced errors and to magnetic field noise. We also present the design and experimental results for a cold Cs atom source, high voltage field plates, optical trapping field in a resonant build-up cavity, noval titanim ultrahigh vacuum system, and magnetic sheilding system. These results show that a measurement of the electron edm at the level of 10⁻²⁹ e-cm. should be feasible. / text