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John Hall Symposium

ON THE ROAD TO ULTRA-HIGH RESOLUTION AND ULTRA-ACCURATE SPECTROSCOPY AT THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA: FOLLOWING THE PATH OF JOHN L. HALL

Alan A. Madej, P. DUBÉ, L. Marmet, J. E. Bernard, Klaus J. Siemsen

Published Mar 28, 2006• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The progress of high resolution and accurate spectroscopic studies using a trapped and laser cooled single ion at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is described. Summaries of the work are presented in the context of the important conceptual and research support provided by Dr. John L. Hall. Results including sub-100 Hz spectroscopy of the Sr+ single ion transition, absolute frequency measurement of the centre frequency via chain and optical frequency comb technology, and use of the ion reference for the precision determination of other frequencies such as the 633-nm I2/HeNe operating frequency are described.

DOI
10.1142/9789812773845_0008

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The progress of high resolution and accurate spectroscopic studies using a trapped and laser cooled single ion at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is described. Summaries of the work are presented in the context of the important conceptual and research support provided by Dr. John L. Hall. Results including sub-100 Hz spectroscopy of the Sr+ single ion transition, absolute frequency measurement of the centre frequency via chain and optical frequency comb technology, and use of the ion reference for the precision determination of other frequencies such as the 633-nm I2/HeNe operating frequency are described.
We describe the recent advances of the NRC single ion based optical frequency standard using the 445-THz S-D transition in88Sr+. Laser cooled confinement and probing of the clock transition has been obtained for periods exceeding 24 hours showing high levels of stability. Spectral resolutions better than 5 Hz at 445 THz have been obtained. Work is described on the development of an improved ion trap system and the continuous linkage of the optical frequency to the RF domain using a fiber based frequency comb.
A single laser cooled ion in a radiofrequency trap can serve as the basis for a highly stable optical frequency standard. We present recent results of our work on single indium ions, using the /sup 1/S/sub 0/ to /sup 3/P/sub 0/ transition at 236.5 nm wave-length as the clock transition. This resonance has a linewidth of only 0.82 Hz where systematic shifts should be controllable on the mHz level. A single In/sup +/ ion is stored in a miniature Paul-Straubel trap and laser cooled to a temperature of about 100 /spl mu/K. The clock transition is excited using a frequency quadrupled Nd:YAG laser. A fractional resolution of 1.3/spl middot/10/sup -13/ has been achieved so far (linewidth of 170 Hz at 1267 THz). The absolute frequency of the clock transition clock transition has been measured with an uncertainty of 2/spl middot/10/sup -13/ using a frequency chain and a methane-stabilized HeNe laser as a reference, that was calibrated with a cesium clock.
Summary form only given. Laser-cooled ions in radiofrequency traps are the atomic systems that allow the highest resolution (ratio of frequency to linewidth) in optical or microwave spectroscopy. They can serve as references in highly stable frequency standards and also enable precise tests of fundamental physics. We present recent results on our In/sup +/ optical frequency standard, based on the 5s/sup 2/ /sup 1/S/sub 0//spl rarr/5s5p /sup 3/P/sub 0/ transition at 236.5 nm wavelength. This transition has a natural linewidth of only 0.82 Hz and is highly immune to systematic frequency shifts.
The present decade has seen great advances in optical frequency standards following the development of femtosecond laser frequency combs. With this technology, combined with a stable and narrow probe laser source (50-100 Hz linewidth), we made a systematic study of the 5s 2S1/2-4d 2D5/2 (S-D) transition frequency of the 88Sr+ ion as a function of the quantization axis in the trap. This study revealed the presence of systematic shifts caused by residual micromotion in our rf Paul trap and led to an evaluation of those shifts. Also, a method was developed based on the measurement of the Zeeman spectrum of the clock transition to cancel the electric quadrupole shift caused by patch potentials on the trap electrodes. From these results, we also determined the absolute frequency of the S-D clock transition frequency at 674 nm with a fractional frequency uncertainty of 3.4 × 10-14. We have since made improvements to our probe laser system and have observed 5 Hz Fourier transform limited linewidths on a Zeeman component of the S-D transition of the 88Sr+ ion. To observe such a narrow transition it is essential to have a known and well behaved drift of the laser frequency during the few minutes it takes to measure the ion resonance using the quantum jump signal. Our approach to minimize the drift rate and its sensitivity to temperature fluctuations has been to stabilize the cavity at the temperature where its coefficient of thermal expansion is zero. We will present an overview of our recent progress made on the frequency standard based on the laser-cooled and trapped single ion of 88Sr+.
In this paper experiments with single trapped ions are reviewed. They are performed with the aim of developing a new frequency standard and to perform cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments with single ions. For a new optical frequency standard we are investigating the 5s21S0 implied by 5s5p3P0 transition of a single trapped laser-cooled 115In(superscript + ion. This line with a natural linewidth of only 0.8 Hz is highly immune to systematic frequency shifts. For sideband laser cooling and fluorescence detection of the indium ion the 5s21S0 implied by 5s5p3P1 transition at 230.6 nm is used. Temperatures below 100 (mu) K and a mean vibrational quantum number <n><1 of the ion in the trap have been reached. For the clock transition a resolution of 1.3 multiplied by 10-13 (linewidth 170 Hz) has been obtained so far, limited by the short term frequency fluctuations of the clock laser. The absolute frequency of the 1S0 implied by 3P0 transition was measured by making a link to the reference frequency of the methane-stabilized HeNe laser using a frequency chain. In the second part of the paper the present status of the experiments on the ion trap laser are briefly described.
Experimental research toward the realization of an optical frequency standard of high accuracy is briefly reviewed. The studies concentrated on single, laser-cooled ions since they offer several attractive features for the achievement of high accuracy. These features include long storage time which eliminates transit-time broadening, confinement that is nearly nonperturbative to the internal level structure of the ion, laser-cooling that reduces motional shifts to small values, and electron-shelving whereby transitions to long-lived states can be detected with unit probability. The authors studied spectroscopically the electric-quadrupole allowed transition at 282 nm in a single, laser-cooled /sup 199/Hg/sup +/ ion stored in an RF Paul trap with extremely high resolution. The measured linewidth is limited by the spectral purity of the laser to about 80 Hz. Possible improvements and future directions are discussed.>