Long-lived metastable states in the 4f${}^{13}$5d6s configuration of Yb${}^{+}$

Abstract

We study the occurrence of long-lived metastable states in the 4f${}^{13}$5d6s electron configuration of Yb${}^{+}$. By optical pumping of a single trapped ion on the ${}^2{F}_{7/2}^{\text{o}}\to (7/2,0{)}_{7/2}$ transition at 377.5 nm, we prepare a wide range of metastable electronic states. We use a co-trapped control ion to sympathetically cool the spectroscopy ion, allowing us to accurately time its subsequent decay. We record a strong decay signal corresponding to a lifetime of 0.92(8) s, a weaker decay signal with lifetime 9.8(+2.9, -2.0) s, and find evidence for a much longer lifetime, $>$ 30 s. We identify the metastable states with these lifetimes qualitatively, and corroborate our results with atomic structure calculations that support the observed lifetimes and decay paths. These long-lived states provide new opportunities in qubit and qudit state detection and optical clocks.

8 pages, 5 figures