2003/10/16 by Masami Yasuda, Hidetoshi Katori · 2 citations
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Frequency and Time Standards #Analytical Chemistry (journal) #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Atomic physics #Black-body radiation #Chemistry #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Ground state #Metastability #Nuclear physics #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Radiation #Strontium #Trapping #physics.atom-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.92.153004
4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letters
arxiv created 2003/10/16 · openalex publication_date 2004/04/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We have measured the lifetime of the 5s5p 3P2 metastable state of strontium atoms by magneto-optically trapping the decayed atoms to the ground state, which allowed sensitive detection of the rare decay events. We found that the blackbody radiation-induced decay was the dominant decay channel for the state at T=300 K. The lifetime was determined to be 520(+310)(-140) s in the limit of zero temperature, arguably the longest lifetime ever determined in a laboratory environment.