title: Measurement of the hyperfine quenching rate of the clock transition in 171YB.
abstract: We report the first experimental determination of the hyperfine quenching rate of the 6s(2) (1)S(0)(F = 1/2) - 6s6p (3)P(0)(F = 1/2) transition in (171)Yb with nuclear spin I = 1/2. This rate determines the natural linewidth and the Rabi frequency of the clock transition of a Yb optical frequency standard. Our technique involves spectrally resolved fluorescence decay measurements of the lowest lying (3)P(0,1) levels of neutral Yb atoms embedded in a solid Ne matrix. The solid Ne provides a simple way to trap a large number of atoms as well as an efficient mechanism for populating (3)P(0). The decay rates in solid Ne are modified by medium effects including the index-of-refraction dependence. We find the (3)P(0) hyperfine quenching rate to be (4.42 ± 0.35) × 10(-2) s(-1) for free (171)Yb, which agrees with recent ab initio calculations.
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA and Department of Physics and Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: C-Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA and Department of Physics and Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Zappala
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: K G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Dietrich
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Greene
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: N D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Lemke
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA and Department of Physics and Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Z-T
authors.initials: ZT
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: T P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: O'Connor