Doppler-free spectroscopy of the 1S0-3P0 optical clock transition in laser-cooled fermionic isotopes of neutral mercury

Abstract

We have performed for the first time direct laser spectroscopy of the 1S0-3P0 optical clock transition at 265.6 nm in fermionic isotopes of neutral mercury laser-cooled in a magneto-optical trap. Spectroscopy is performed by measuring the depletion of the magneto-optical trap induced by the excitation of the long-lived 3P0 state by a probe at 265.6 nm. Measurements resolve the Doppler-free recoil doublet allowing for a determination of the transition frequency to an uncer- tainty well below the Doppler-broadened linewidth. We have performed absolute measurement of the frequency with respect to an ultra-stable reference monitored by LNE-SYRTE fountain pri- mary frequency standards using a femtosecond laser frequency comb. The measured frequency is 1128575290808 +/- 5.6 kHz in 199Hg and 1128569561140 +/- 5.3 kHz in 201Hg, more than 4 orders of magnitude better than previous indirect determinations. Owing to a low sensitivity to blackbody radiation, mercury is a promising candidate for reaching the ultimate performance of optical lattice clocks.

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• Sr lattice clock at 1x10^{-16} fractional uncertainty by remote optical evaluation with a Ca clock
• New Limits on Coupling of Fundamental Constants to Gravity Using ${}^{87}$Sr Optical Lattice Clocks
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Cited by in corpus (9)

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• Isotope-shift analysis with the $4f^{14}6s^2{}^1{S}_0-4f^{13}5d6s^2(J=2)$ transition in ytterbium
• Intercombination line frequencies in ${}^{171}$Yb validated with the clock transition
• Comb-referenced Doppler-free spectrometry of the ${}^{200}$Hg and ${}^{202}$Hg intercombination line at 254 nm
• Ultralong-range Rydberg molecules of Hg atoms