Optical Excitation and Decay Dynamics of Ytterbium Atoms Embedded in a Solid Neon Matrix

Abstract

Neutral ytterbium atoms embedded in solid neon qualitatively retain the structure of free atoms. Despite the atom-solid interaction, the 6s6p ${}^3$P${}_0$ level is found to remain metastable with its lifetimes determined to be in the range of ten to hundreds of seconds. The atomic population can be almost completely transferred between the ground level and the metastable level via optical excitation and spontaneous decay. The dynamics of this process is examined, and is used to explicitly demonstrate that the transition broadening mechanism is homogeneous.

References in corpus (4)

• Improved limit on the permanent electric dipole moment of 199Hg
• Possibility of an ultra-precise optical clock using the $6^1{S}_0\to 6^3{P}_0^o$ transition in ${}^{171,173}$Yb atoms held in an optical lattice
• Hyperfine quenching of the metastable ${}^3{P}_{0,2}$ states in divalent atoms
• Proposal for a sensitive search for electric dipole moment of electron with matrix-isolated radicals

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• Measurement of the Hyperfine Quenching Rate of the Clock Transition in ${}^{171}$Yb
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• Sub-nanometer optical linewidth of thulium atoms in rare gas crystals
• High Resolution Spectroscopy of Neutral Yb Atoms in a Solid Ne Matrix
• Excitation and emission spectra of rubidium in rare-gas thin-films
• Detection of atomic nuclear reaction products via optical imaging
• Crystal Fields and Zeeman Effect for Thulium in Solid Argon