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Optics Letters

Lifetime of the metastable 6s′ [1/2]_0 clock state in xenon

M. Walhout, Uwe Sterr, A. Witte, S. L. Rolston

Published May 15, 1995• 24 citations
Publisher

Abstract

To investigate the potential of a proposed optical frequency standard, we have measured the lifetime of the metastable 6s' [(1/2)](0) state in xenon. Magneto-optically trapped xenon atoms were prepared in the 6s' [(1/2)](0) state, and the time dependence of the vacuum-ultraviolet decay signature was analyzed. The total decay rate of 75(3) s(-1) is the sum of a 7.8(38)-s(-1) spontaneous emission rate (1-sigma uncertainties) and a much larger deexcitation rate that is due to a transition driven by room-temperature blackbody radiation.

DOI
10.1364/ol.20.001192

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Physical Review Letters•Jun 7, 1993•79 citations
To investigate the potential of a proposed optical frequency standard, we have measured the lifetime of the metastable 6s' (1/2) state in xenon. Magneto-optically trapped xenon atoms were prepared in the 6s' (1/2) state, and the time dependence of the vacuum-ultraviolet decay signature was analyzed. The total decay rate of 75(3) s(-1) is the sum of a 7.8(38)-s(-1) spontaneous emission rate (1-sigma uncertainties) and a much larger deexcitation rate that is due to a transition driven by room-temperature blackbody radiation.
We have magneto-optically trapped the nine stable isotopes of xenon. Using the Zeeman slowing method to decelerate a beam of xenon atoms in the metastable 6s 3/2 [3/2]2{]}_{2}]2​ state (notation representing nl Jcore{\mathit{J}}_{\mathrm{core}}Jcore​ [K=Jcore{\mathit{J}}_{\mathrm{core}}Jcore​+l]J{]}_{\mathit{J}}]J​), we load our trap to a collisionally limited density of more than 1010{10}^{10}1010 atoms/cm3{\mathrm{cm}}^{3}cm3. The two odd isotopes are trapped without a repumping frequency, even though they have hyperfine structure. The sensitivity of the trapping process to the laser frequency is exploited to make accurate measurements of the isotope shifts for the 6s 3/2 [3/2]2{]}_{2}]2​\ensuremath{\rightarrow}6p 3/2 [5/2]3{]}_{3}]3​ laser-cooling transition and of the hyperfine constants for 131Xe^{131}\mathrm{Xe}131Xe.
The destruction rates of the xenon $6{s}^{\ensuremath{'}}{[\frac{1}{2}]}_{0}$ metastable and $6{s}^{\ensuremath{'}}{[\frac{1}{2}]}_{1}$ resonance atoms by collisions with ground-state xenon atoms have been measured by studying the temporal dependence of the number densities of the $6{s}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ and 6p6p6p atoms. The studies have been made both during the earlier afterglow of a xenon pulsed discharge and after the selective production of the $6{s}^{\ensuremath{'}}{[\frac{1}{2}]}_{0,1}$ atoms by a laser excitation in the late afterglow. An original optical pumping technique, using a tunable pulsed dye laser, was employed to populate the $6{s}^{\ensuremath{'}}{[\frac{1}{2}]}_{0,1}$ levels by excitation of the 6s[32]26s{[\frac{3}{2}]}_{2}6s[23​]2​ long-lived metastable atoms to $6{p}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ levels. The pressure dependence of the decay frequencies of these $6{s}^{\ensuremath{'}}{[\frac{1}{2}]}_{0,1}$ atoms was analyzed in the xenon pressure range of 0.04 to 1 torr and a kinetic model describing the evolution of the densities of these atoms after their production was established. The rate coefficients for the relaxation of the $6{s}^{\ensuremath{'}}{[\frac{1}{2}]}_{0}$ metastable and $6{s}^{\ensuremath{'}}{[\frac{1}{2}]}_{1}$ resonance atoms by two-body collisions involving a ground-state xenon atom are (8.45\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.85) \ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{} ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}12}$ cm3{\mathrm{cm}}^{3}cm3 ${\mathrm{sec}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ and (6.65 \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{} 1.00) \ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{} ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}11}$ cm3{\mathrm{cm}}^{3}cm3 ${\mathrm{sec}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, respectively. Results show that, in fact, at least 75% of this relaxation is a transfer of population to the 6p[12]16p{[\frac{1}{2}]}_{1}6p[21​]1​ level following ${\mathrm{Xe}}^{*}(6{s}^{\ensuremath{'}}{[\frac{1}{2}]}_{0,1})+\mathrm{Xe}\ensuremath{\rightleftarrows}{\mathrm{Xe}}^{*}(6p{[\frac{1}{2}]}_{1})+\mathrm{Xe}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\Delta}E$. These collisional transfer processes have been explained by means of Mulliken's xenon molecular potential curves.
Optical lattice clocks based on the narrow ( 5 s 2 ) S 0 1 − ( 5 s 5 p ) P 0 3 transition in neutral strontium (Sr) are among the most precise and accurate measurement devices in existence. Although this transition is completely forbidden by selection rules, state mixing from the hyperfine interaction in Sr 87 provides a weakly allowed transition that can be coherently driven with practical clock laser intensities. While the coherent interrogation times of optical clocks are typically set by the linewidth of the probe laser, this limitation can be overcome in synchronous differential comparisons between ensembles. In such measurements the natural lifetime of the S 0 1 – P 0 3 clock transition becomes the fundamental limiting factor to the duration of a single run of the experiment. However, a direct measurement of the decay rate of the clock excited state is quite challenging due to the competing effects of other loss channels such as Raman scattering, inelastic collisions, and atom loss due to background gas. In this work, we monitor the decay of Sr atoms trapped in an optical lattice and initialized in the P 0 3 state. By making measurements of high and low density ensembles of both Sr 87 and Sr 88 across varying lattice trap depths, we isolate radiative decay, which accounts for a significant fraction of the observed decays at low depths. We obtain a natural radiative decay lifetime of 167 − 40 + 79 s for the P 0 3 clock state in Sr 87 , a value that is consistent with previously reported measurements and theoretical predictions. We also introduce an additional measurement scheme that involves repeated measurements of the ground-state population within a single experimental sequence, validating our model and the consistency of the measured rates. We expect that the techniques introduced in this work are applicable to lifetime measurements of long-lived metastable states in other atoms and ions used for clocks and quantum computing. The results presented in this work inform performance estimates of proposed gravitational wave detectors and long-baseline atom interferometers making use of Sr 87 .
The Stark shift of the ytterbium (Yb) optical clock transition due to room-temperature blackbody radiation is dominated by a static Stark effect, which was recently measured to high accuracy [J. A. Sherman et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 153002 (2012)]. However, room-temperature realization of the clock at ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}18}$ uncertainty requires a dynamic contribution to this static approximation. This dynamic term largely depends on a single electric dipole matrix element for which theoretically and experimentally derived values disagree significantly. We determine this important matrix element by two independent methods, which yield consistent values. Along with precise radiative lifetimes of 6s6p3P16s6p\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{}^{3}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{P}_{1}^{}6s6p3P1​ and 5d6s3D15d6s\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{}^{3}\phantom{\rule{-0.16em}{0ex}}{D}_{1}^{}5d6s3D1​, we report the clock shift due to an ideal 300 K blackbody environment to 0.05% precision.
The natural decay rates of the 1s5{\mathit{s}}_{5}s5​[np5{\mathit{np}}^{5}np5(n+1)s,3{,}^{3},3P2{\mathit{P}}_{2}P2​] metastable state of argon and krypton are experimentally determined using a magneto-optical trap. The method to determine the lifetime of a metastable state from a fluorescence decay measurement is described. The obtained lifetimes are ${38}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}5}^{+8}$ s for argon and ${39}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}4}^{+5}$ s for krypton.