2000/02/15 by P. A. Barton, P. Bartoň, C. Donald +8 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #Advanced Frequency and Time Standards #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #physics.atom-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.62.032503
15 pages including 8 figures, submitted to Physical Review A
arxiv created 2000/02/15 · openalex publication_date 2000/08/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2017/01/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report a measurement of the lifetime of the 3d2D5/2 metastable level in 40Ca+, using quantum jumps of a single cold calcium ion in a linear Paul trap. The 4s2S1/2--3d2D5/2 transition is significant for single-ion optical frequency standards, astrophysical references, and tests of atomic structure calculations. We obtain \ensuremathτ=1.168\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.007 s from observation of nearly 64000 quantum jumps during \ensuremath∼32 h. Our result is more precise and significantly larger than previous measurements. Experiments carried out to quantify 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\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.01 s for the lifetime of 3d2D3/2. We also use quantum jump observations to demonstrate photon antibunching, and to estimate background pressure and heating rates in the ion trap.