Modern experimental techniques can generate magnetic fields of the form H(t) = H0 z-hat + H1 [x-hat cos(ωt) + y-hat sin(ωt)], at frequencies within an order of magnitude of the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) frequencies, ωn0 and ωe0, respectively, when acting on atoms or molecules. We derive simple closed-form expressions for the exact nuclear- and electronic-spin wave functions that enable controlled transitions between entangled states, allowing an atom or molecule to function as a quantum computer. These solutions also enable precise NMR or EPR measurements of nuclear moments in atoms and molecules. We present examples relevant to measurements of the nuclear moments of 14N, 7Li, and 133Cs. Because existing hyperfine measurements of the lowest three nuclear moments of 133Cs are mutually inconsistent, the proposed NMR/EPR experiments provide a route to measuring all seven of its nuclear moments with high precision.
Compared to other stable isotopes of
Yb+,
173Yb+ has a richer hyperfine structure, which leads to more favorable clock transitions, spectroscopic techniques for probing new physics, and more sophisticated quantum computing architectures. However, to date, its electronic spectrum remains poorly characterized. Here, we report on efficient laser cooling, state preparation, and detection of a single trapped
173Yb+ ion. The previously unobserved
2S1/2→2D3/2 electric quadrupole transition at 436 nm is coherently excited, and the isotope shift between
171Yb+ and
173Yb+ on this transition is determined with an uncertainty of 1.4 Hz. Using microwave spectroscopy, we resolve the hyperfine structure (HFS) of the
2D3/2 state with a relative uncertainty below
10−8. From the HFS measurement data, we infer for
173Yb a nuclear magnetic octupole moment
Ω=−0.062(8)(b×μN) with uncertainty reduced by more than 2 orders of magnitude compared to previous studies. The data also allow us to determine hyperfine anomalies for the
2S1/2 and
2D3/2 states.
This thesis reports on the realisation and characterisation of a magnetically trapped ultracold atomic mixture of 87Rb and 133Cs in the F = 1, mF = −1 and F = 3, mF = −3 hyperfine states respectively. A compact two-species double magneto-optical trapping (MOT) apparatus is constructed in which a pyramid MOT acts to provide an independent flux of both atomic species for capture in the ultra-high vacuum science region of the apparatus. For the two-species science MOT in which this atom flux is captured, interspecies light assisted inelastic collisions are found to be a highly significant loss mechanism. A novel optical pressure spatial displacement technique is developed to minimise such losses, allowing near independent simultaneous loading of up to ' 8 × 108 87Rb and ' 3 × 108 133Cs atoms into an Ioffe-Pritchard ‘baseball ’ magnetic trap at magnetic bias fields of 166.70(6) and 165.50(6) G respectively. At the loaded 87Rb and 133Cs atom number densities of 1.78(6) × 109 and