0000000000328488

AUTHOR

F. Kurth

Lifetime measurements of the 3D3/2 and 3D5/2 metastable states in CaII

The lifetime of the metastable 3D3/2 and 3D5/2 states of Ca+ ions is determined in a r.f. ion trap by laser excitation of this levels and subsequent time delayed probing of the state population by a second laser. In a buffer gas atmosphere of about 10−5−10−6 mbar of He we observe quenching to the ground state and strong finestructure mixing of the two D-states. This mixing allowes only the determination of the combined lifetime. Our result of τ(3D)=1.24(39) s is in good agreement with theoretical calculations.

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Improved lifetime measurements of the 3D3/2 and 3D5/2 metastable states of Ca II

The lifetimes of both metastable 3D-levels of Ca+ have been measured using the ion storage technique. Operation at UHV-conditions eliminated the earlier reported problems of collisional finestructure mixing between those states [1], which is inherent to measurements at buffergas background. The results of τ(D 3/2)=1113(45) ms and τ(D 5/2)=1054(61) ms improve our earlier result [1] by almost one order of magnitude and are in good agreement with recent theoretical calculations [3, 4, 5].

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Doppler free ?dark resonances? for hyperfine measurements and isotope shifts in Ca+ isotopes in a Paul trap

We have observed “dark resonances” in theA-type level structure, formed by the 4S1/2 ground state, the 4P1/2 excited state and the low lying metastable 3D3/2 state in the Calcium ion, confined in a Paul radio-frequency trap. These Doppler-free and potentially very narrow resonances were used to determine the magnetic dipole hyperfine interaction constant A for the 4P1/2 and 3D3/2 state of43Ca+, giving −142(8) MHz and −48.3(1.6) MHz, respectively. From measurements of the P-D (E1) and S-D (E2) transition wavelength in a mixture of43Ca+ and40Ca+ we determined the isotope shifts of these lines.

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Precise determination of the ground state hyperfine structure splitting of43Ca II

We have performed a laser microwave double resonance experiment on43Ca+ ions stored in a Paul ion trap. The ground state hfs splitting has been determined to Δν=3 225 608 286. 4(3) Hz. The value is corrected for small Zeeman, Stark and second order Doppler shifts as well as for light shift effects caused by the laserfields. The uncertainty is mainly determined by the errors of these corrections.

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Laser-microwave spectroscopy of the hyperfine structure of 9Be for the investigation of unstable Be isotopes

Abstract For an investigation concerning the nuclear magnetic moments and their distributions in the nuclei of 7,11Be, an experimental project using laser-microwave double resonance spectroscopy for trapped ions is under progress at INS. Laser cooled ion crystals consisting of a few 9Be+ ions were observed and the ground state hyperfine splitting of 9Be+ was measured with a precision of 10−5. Experiments on the unstable isotope 7Be have been started.

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