Lifetime of the F7 /2 2 Level in Yb+ for Spontaneous Emission of Electric Octupole Radiation

authored by: R. Lange, A. A. Peshkov, N. Huntemann, Chr Tamm, A. Surzhykov, E. Peik
Abstract: We report a measurement of the radiative lifetime of the F7/22 level of Yb+171 that is coupled to the S1/22 ground state via an electric octupole transition. The radiative lifetime is determined to be 4.98(25)×107 s, corresponding to 1.58(8) yr. The result reduces the relative uncertainty in this exceptionally long excited state lifetime by 1 order of magnitude with respect to previous experimental estimates. Our method is based on the coherent excitation of the corresponding transition and avoids limitations through competing decay processes. The explicit dependence on the laser intensity is eliminated by simultaneously measuring the resonant Rabi frequency and the induced quadratic Stark shift. Combining the result with information on the dynamic differential polarizability permits a calculation of the transition matrix element to infer the radiative lifetime.
External Organisation(s): National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB)
Technische Universität Braunschweig
Laboratory for Emerging Nanometrology Braunschweig (LENA)
Type: Article
Journal: Physical review letters
Volume: 127
ISSN: 0031-9007
Publication date: 19.11.2021
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Physics and Astronomy(all)
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.213001 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{2d2f3fe705844ed48b204992bd166070,
title = "Lifetime of the F7 /2 2 Level in Yb+ for Spontaneous Emission of Electric Octupole Radiation",
abstract = "We report a measurement of the radiative lifetime of the F7/22 level of Yb+171 that is coupled to the S1/22 ground state via an electric octupole transition. The radiative lifetime is determined to be 4.98(25)×107 s, corresponding to 1.58(8) yr. The result reduces the relative uncertainty in this exceptionally long excited state lifetime by 1 order of magnitude with respect to previous experimental estimates. Our method is based on the coherent excitation of the corresponding transition and avoids limitations through competing decay processes. The explicit dependence on the laser intensity is eliminated by simultaneously measuring the resonant Rabi frequency and the induced quadratic Stark shift. Combining the result with information on the dynamic differential polarizability permits a calculation of the transition matrix element to infer the radiative lifetime.",
author = "R. Lange and Peshkov, {A. A.} and N. Huntemann and Chr Tamm and A. Surzhykov and E. Peik",
note = "Funding information: We thank Burghard Lipphardt, Thomas Legero, Erik Benkler and Uwe Sterr for providing the ultrastable laser reference Si-2. This work has been supported by the Max-Planck-RIKEN-PTB-Center for Time, Constants and Fundamental Symmetries. Furthermore, this work has been funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)—Project-ID 274200144—SFB 1227 within project B02 and under Germany{\textquoteright}s Excellence Strategy—EXC-2123 QuantumFrontiers—390837967.",
year = "2021",
month = nov,
day = "19",
doi = "10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.213001",
language = "English",
volume = "127",
journal = "Physical review letters",
issn = "0031-9007",
publisher = "American Physical Society",
number = "21",
}