Precision lifetime measurement of the cesium $6P_{3/2}$ level using ultrafast pump-probe laser pulses

Abstract

Using the inherent timing stability of pulses from a mode-locked laser, we have precisely measured the cesium $6P_{3/2}$ excited state lifetime. An initial pump pulse excites cesium atoms in two counter-propagating atomic beams to the $6P_{3/2}$ level. A subsequent synchronized probe pulse ionizes atoms which remain in the excited state, and the photo-ions are collected and counted. By selecting pump pulses which vary in time with respect to the probe pulses, we obtain a sampling of the excited state population in time, resulting in a lifetime value of 30.462(46) ns. The measurement uncertainty (0.15%) is larger than our previous report of 0.12% [Phys. Rev. A 84, 010501(R) (2011)] due to the inclusion of additional data and systematic errors. In this follow-up paper we present details of the primary systematic errors encountered in the measurement, which include atomic motion within the intensity profiles of the laser beams, quantum beating in the photo-ion signal, and radiation trapping. Improvements to further reduce the experimental uncertainty are also discussed

arXiv comment12 pages, 13 figures; submitted to Physical Review A

References in corpus (13)

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Cited by in corpus (16)

• Measurements of the Ground-State Polarizabilities of Cs, Rb, and K using Atom Interferometry
• New Physics Constraints from Atomic Parity Violation in ${}^{133}$Cs
• Determination of the scalar and vector polarizabilities of the cesium $6s{}^2{S}_{1/2}\to 7s{}^2{S}_{1/2}$ transition and implications for atomic parity non-conservation
• Measurement of the radial matrix elements for the $6s^2{S}_{1/2}\to 7p^2{P}_J$ transitions in cesium
• Electric dipole matrix elements for the $6p{}^2{P}_J\to 7s{}^2{S}_{1/2}$ transition in atomic cesium
• Precise Lifetime Measurement of the Cesium $5^2{D}_{5/2}$ State
• Precision theoretical determination of electric-dipole matrix elements in atomic cesium
• Measurement of the tune-out wavelength for ${}^{133}$Cs at $880$ nm
• Electric dipole transition amplitudes for atoms and ions with one valence electron
• QED radiative corrections to electric dipole amplitudes in heavy atoms
• Measurement of the lifetime of the $7s^2{S}_{1/2}$ state in atomic cesium using asynchronous gated detection
• Tune-out wavelengths of the hyperfine components of the ground level of ${}^{133}$Cs atoms
• Measurement of the hyperfine coupling constants and absolute energies of the $8p{}^2{P}_{1/2}$ and $8p{}^2{P}_{3/2}$ levels in atomic cesium
• High-precision calculations of the $1s^{2}2s2p$ ${}^1{P}_1\to 1s^{2}2s^2$ ${}^1{S}_0$ spin-allowed $E1$ transition in C {\small III}
• Lifetime measurement of the 5s5p 1P1 state in strontium
• Analysis of polarizability measurements made with atom interferometry