Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 14: Poster: Precision spectroscopy of atoms and ions (with Q)

A 14.1: Poster

Monday, March 17, 2014, 16:30–18:30, Spree-Palais

Relative frequency comb locked to atomic resonances generated by quantum phase modulation — •Zuoye Liu, Christian Ott, Stefano M. Cavaletto, Kristina Meyer, Zoltán Harman, Christoph M. Keitel, and Thomas Pfeifer — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Recently, a new phase-control mechanism was demonstrated in helium in time-resolved absorption experiments [1]. Here, we theoretically investigate the generation of frequency combs referenced to atomic resonances by extending this phase-control concept to periodic phase manipulations covering the entire evolution of the coherence decay of a two-level system [2]. The comb spectral structure depends on both the atomic and the phase-control properties, which can be cast into closed-form analytical descriptions. As the first envisaged realistic implementation, we perform a simulation for the 1s2*1s2p transition in helium or helium-like beryllium, which agrees excellently with our analytical theory. The mechanism allows to create frequency combs in the x-ray region, providing an opportunity for precision spectroscopy of transitions in highly charged ions [3] in the future. It may thus open the door to fundamental physics applications such as testing the predictions of bound-state QED.

[1] C. Ott et al., Science 340, 716 (2013)

[2] Z. Liu, C. Ott, S. M. Cavaletto, Z. Harman, C. H. Keitel, and T. Pfeifer, ArXiv: 1309. 6335 (2103)

[3] S. Bernitt et al., Nature 492, 225 (2012)