Bonn 2025 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 52: Nuclear Clocks
Q 52.3: Talk
Thursday, March 13, 2025, 11:45–12:00, HS Botanik
Towards Continuous-Wave Laser Excitation of the 229Th Nuclear Isomer Sympathetically Cooled with Ca Ions — •Ke Zhang1, Valerii Andriushkov3,4, Yumiao Wang1,2, Keerthan Subramanian1, Srinivasa Pradeep Arasada1, Florian Zacherl1, Nutan Kumari Sah1, Jonas Stricker1,3, Christoph E. Düllmann1,3,4, Dmitry Budker1,3,4,5, Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler1, and Lars von der Wense1 — 1University of Mainz, Germany — 2Fudan University, China — 3Helmholtz Institute Mainz, Germany — 4GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Germany — 5University of California, USA
We propose an experimental scheme for the laser excitation of the nuclear isomeric state in the 229Th3+ ion system, a significant challenge in nuclear and atomic physics. Thorium ions are generated from a recoil ion source and guided into a Paul trap using a radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) guide and a mass filter. Sub-Doppler-cooled 40Ca+ ions are used to sympathetically cool the thorium ions to their motional ground state, where the ions are deeply confined in the Lamb-Dicke regime. A continuous-wave laser, stabilized to match the nuclear transition energy, will be employed to drive the isomeric transition. This experimental scheme aims to demonstrate the feasibility of precision nuclear spectroscopy in sympathetically cooled ion systems, paving the way for ion-based nuclear optical clocks and advancing fundamental physics research. This work is supported by the DFG Project ’TACTICa’ (grant agreement no. 495729045) as well as the BMBF Quantum Futur II Grant Project ’NuQuant’ (FKZ 13N16295A).
Keywords: Th-229 laser spectroscopy; Isomeric excitation; Sympathetic Cooling; Coulomb Crystal; Nuclear Optical Clock