dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaPrecision Measurement of the Lifetime of the 3d D_{5/2} state in 40Ca+
| Authors | P. A. Barton, C. J. S. Donald, D. M. Lucas, D. A. Stevens, A. M. Steane, D. N. Stacey |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0002026 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0002026 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevA.62.032503 |
Abstract
We report a measurement of the lifetime of the 3d 2D_{5/2} metastable level in 40Ca+, using quantum jumps of a single cold calcium ion in a linear Paul trap. The 4s S_{1/2} - 3d D_{5/2} transition is significant for single-ion optical frequency standards, astrophysical references, and tests of atomic structure calculations. We obtain tau = 1.168 +- 0.007 s from observation of nearly 64,000 quantum jumps during approximately 32 hours. Our result is more precise and significantly larger than previous measurements. Experiments carried out to quantity systematic effects included a study of a previously unremarked source of systematic error, namely excitation by the broad background of radiation emitted by a semiconductor diode laser. Combining our result with atomic structure calculations yields 1.20 +- 0.01 s for the lifetime of 3d D_{3/2}. We also use quantum jump observations to demonstrate photon anti-bunching, and to estimate background pressure and heating rates in the ion trap.
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"abstract": "We report a measurement of the lifetime of the 3d 2D_{5/2} metastable level\nin 40Ca+, using quantum jumps of a single cold calcium ion in a linear Paul\ntrap. The 4s S_{1/2} - 3d D_{5/2} transition is significant for single-ion\noptical frequency standards, astrophysical references, and tests of atomic\nstructure calculations. We obtain tau = 1.168 +- 0.007 s from observation of\nnearly 64,000 quantum jumps during approximately 32 hours. Our result is more\nprecise and significantly larger than previous measurements. Experiments\ncarried out to quantity systematic effects included a study of a previously\nunremarked source of systematic error, namely excitation by the broad\nbackground of radiation emitted by a semiconductor diode laser. Combining our\nresult with atomic structure calculations yields 1.20 +- 0.01 s for the\nlifetime of 3d D_{3/2}. We also use quantum jump observations to demonstrate\nphoton anti-bunching, and to estimate background pressure and heating rates in\nthe ion trap.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0002026",
"authors": [
"P. A. Barton",
"C. J. S. Donald",
"D. M. Lucas",
"D. A. Stevens",
"A. M. Steane",
"D. N. Stacey"
],
"categories": [
"physics.atom-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevA.62.032503",
"title": "Precision Measurement of the Lifetime of the 3d D_{5/2} state in 40Ca+",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0002026"
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