Observation of an Inner-Shell Orbital Clock Transition in Neutral Ytterbium Atoms

Abstract

We observe a weakly allowed optical transition of atomic ytterbium from the ground state to the metastable state $4f^{13}5d6s^2(J=2)$ for all five bosonic and two fermionic isotopes with resolved Zeeman and hyperfine structures. This inner-shell orbital transition has been proposed as a new frequency standard as well as a quantum sensor for new physics. We find magic wavelengths through the measurement of the scalar and tensor polarizabilities and reveal that the measured trap lifetime in a three-dimensional optical lattice is 1.9(1) s, which is crucial for precision measurements. We also determine the $g$ factor by an interleaved measurement, consistent with our relativistic atomic calculation. This work opens the possibility of an optical lattice clock with improved stability and accuracy as well as novel approaches for physics beyond the standard model.

12 pages, 8 figures

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Realization of a fast triple-magic all-optical qutrit in strontium-88
• Orders-of-magnitude improvement in precision spectroscopy of an inner-shell orbital clock transition in neutral ytterbium
• Quantum Sensing Using Atomic Clocks for Nuclear and Particle Physics
• Long-lived metastable states in the 4f${}^{13}$5d6s configuration of Yb${}^{+}$