6533b85dfe1ef96bd12bdcd5

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Ion storage technique for very long living states: The decay rate of the 5D 3/2 state of Ba II

R. SchneiderGünter Werth

subject

PhysicsNuclear and High Energy Physicseducation.field_of_studyExcited stateMetastabilityBuffer gasPopulationQuadrupoleAtomic physicsGround stateeducationTunable laserIon

description

The metastable 5D 3/2 state of Ba+ is used to demonstrate the possibility of the ion storage technique for the measurement of extremely long lived states. The ions are confined in a r.f. quadrupole trap and excited by a strong pulsed tunable dye laser to the 6P 1/2 state which partially decays into the 5D 3/2 state. Sampling of the time development of the ground state population leads to the determination of the 5D 3/2 decay rate. Using He as a buffer gas at a pressure of about 10−6 mbar to initially store the ions, varying the gas density and extrapolating to zero pressure, we find for the lifetime $$\tau _{D_{3/2} } = 17.5 \pm 4s$$ .

https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01559751