Frequency Metrology on single trapped ions in the weak binding limit: The 3s1/2-3p3/2 transition in 24-Mg+
arXiv:0808.4061 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.013006
Abstract
We demonstrate a method for precision spectroscopy on trapped ions in the limit of unresolved motional sidebands. By sympathetic cooling of a chain of crystallized ions we suppress adverse temperature variations induced by the spectroscopy laser that usually lead to a distorted line profle and obtain a Voigt profile with negligible distortions. We applied the method to measure the absolute frequency of the astrophysically relevant D2 transition in single 24-Mg+ ions and find 1072082934.33(16)MHz, a nearly 400fold improvement over previous results. Further, we find the excited state lifetime to be 3.84(10) ns.
4 pages, 5 figures