Düsseldorf 2007 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 31: Poster Laserspektroskopie
Q 31.8: Poster
Tuesday, March 20, 2007, 16:30–18:30, Poster C
Towards an optical clock with neutral Yb — •Florian Baumer, Ulf Bressel, Sven Kroboth, Nils Nemitz, Alexander Nevsky, Maxim Okhapkin, Andreas Wicht, Stephan Schiller, and Axel Görlitz — Institut für Experimentalphysik, HHU Düsseldorf, Germany
Neutral ytterbium (Yb) is an interesting candidate for the realization of an optical clock at a wavelength of 578 nm [1]. Without application of external fields, the corresponding transition 1S0 → 3P0 is strictly forbidden in the bosonic isotopes, while hyperfine interactions shorten the radiative lifetime of the 3P0 state in the fermionic isotopes to ≈ 20 s leading to transition linewidths of 43.5 mHz for 171Yb and 38.5 mHz for 173Yb.
A promising scheme for the realization of an optical clock with Yb involves trapping of laser-cooled atoms in an optical lattice [2], where recoil shifts and Doppler shifts can be practically eliminated. The light shift on the clock transition can be minimized by tuning the lattice laser to the so-called "magic" wavelength at 759 nm as has been demonstrated recently by Barber et al. [2]. It is estimated that perturbations to the transition frequency by the lattice light can be held at the level of 10−18 [1].
We report on our experimental progress towards the realization of an optical lattice clock with ytterbium.
[1] S. Porsev et al., Phys. Rev. A 69, 021403
[2] Z. Barber et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 083002 (2006)