Hyperfine quenching of the metastable ³P_0,2 states in divalent atoms

2003/12/02 by Sergey Porsev, Andrei Derevianko
Physics and Astronomy · #physics.atom-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.69.042506

published as Phys. Rev. A 69, 042506 (2004) · 10 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Phys. Rev. A

arxiv created 2003/12/02 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01

Abstract

Hyperfine quenching rates of the lowest-energy metastable ³P₀ and ³P₂ states of Mg, Ca, Sr, and Yb atoms are computed. The calculations are carried out using ab initio relativistic many-body methods. The computed lifetimes may be useful for designing novel ultra-precise optical clocks and trapping experiments with the 3P₂ fermionic isotopes. The resulting natural widths of the ³P₀ -> ¹S₀ clock transition are 0.44 mHz for ²⁵Mg, 2.2 mHz for ⁴³Ca, 7.6 mHz for ⁸⁷Sr, 43.5 mHz for ¹⁷¹Yb, and 38.5 mHz for ¹⁷³Yb. Compared to the bosonic isotopes, the lifetime of the 3P₂ states in fermionic isotopes is noticeably shortened by the hyperfine quenching but still remains long enough for trapping experiments.

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