199 research outputs found
Highly charged ions: optical clocks and applications in fundamental physics
Recent developments in frequency metrology and optical clocks have been based
on electronic transitions in atoms and singly charged ions as references. These
systems have enabled relative frequency uncertainties at a level of a few parts
in . This accomplishment not only allows for extremely accurate time
and frequency measurements, but also to probe our understanding of fundamental
physics, such as variation of fundamental constants, violation of the local
Lorentz invariance, and forces beyond the Standard Model of Physics. In
addition, novel clocks are driving the development of sophisticated technical
applications. Crucial for applications of clocks in fundamental physics are a
high sensitivity to effects beyond the Standard Model and Einstein's Theory of
Relativity and a small frequency uncertainty of the clock. Highly charged ions
offer both. They have been proposed as highly accurate clocks, since they
possess optical transitions which can be extremely narrow and less sensitive to
external perturbations compared to current atomic clock species. The selection
of highly charged ions in different charge states offers narrow transitions
that are among the most sensitive ones for a change in the fine-structure
constant and the electron-to-proton mass ratio, as well as other new physics
effects. Recent advances in trapping and sympathetic cooling of highly charged
ions will in the future enable high accuracy optical spectroscopy. Progress in
calculating the properties of selected highly charged ions has allowed the
evaluation of systematic shifts and the prediction of the sensitivity to the
"new physics" effects. This article reviews the current status of theory and
experiment in the field.Comment: 53 pages, 16 figures, submitted to RM
Magnetic-dipole transition probabilities in B-like and Be-like ions
The magnetic-dipole transition probabilities between the fine-structure
levels (1s^2 2s^2 2p) ^2P_1/2 - ^2P_3/2 for B-like ions and (1s^2 2s 2p) ^3P_1
- ^3P_2 for Be-like ions are calculated. The configuration-interaction method
in the Dirac-Fock-Sturm basis is employed for the evaluation of the
interelectronic-interaction correction with negative-continuum spectrum being
taken into account. The 1/Z interelectronic-interaction contribution is derived
within a rigorous QED approach employing the two-time Green function method.
The one-electron QED correction is evaluated within framework of the anomalous
magnetic-moment approximation. A comparison with the theoretical results of
other authors and with available experimental data is presented
Closed-cycle, low-vibration 4 K cryostat for ion traps and other applications
In-vacuo cryogenic environments are ideal for applications requiring both low
temperatures and extremely low particle densities. This enables reaching long
storage and coherence times for example in ion traps, essential requirements
for experiments with highly charged ions, quantum computation, and optical
clocks. We have developed a novel cryostat continuously refrigerated with a
pulse-tube cryocooler and providing the lowest vibration level reported for
such a closed-cycle system with 1 W cooling power for a <5 K experiment. A
decoupling system suppresses vibrations from the cryocooler by three orders of
magnitude down to a level of 10 nm peak amplitudes in the horizontal plane.
Heat loads of about 40 W (at 45 K) and 1 W (at 4 K) are transferred from an
experimental chamber, mounted on an optical table, to the cryocooler through a
vacuum-insulated massive 120 kg inertial copper pendulum. The 1.4 m long
pendulum allows installation of the cryocooler in a separate, acoustically
isolated machine room. In the laser laboratory, we measured the residual
vibrations using an interferometric setup. The positioning of the 4 K elements
is reproduced to better than a few micrometer after a full thermal cycle to
room temperature. Extreme high vacuum on the mbar level is achieved.
In collaboration with the Max-Planck-Intitut f\"ur Kernphysik (MPIK), such a
setup is now in operation at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)
for a next-generation optical clock experiment using highly charged ions
Optical spectroscopy of complex open 4-shell ions Sn-Sn
We analyze the complex level structure of ions with many-valence-electron
open [Kr] 4 sub-shells (=7-4) with ab initio
calculations based on configuration-interaction many-body perturbation theory
(CI+MBPT). Charge-state-resolved optical and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectra
of Sn-Sn ions were obtained using an electron beam ion trap.
Semi-empirical spectral fits carried out with the orthogonal parameters
technique and Cowan code calculations lead to 90 identifications of
magnetic-dipole transitions and the determination of 79 energy
ground-configuration levels, questioning some earlier EUV-line assignments. Our
results, the most complete data set available to date for these ground
configurations, confirm the ab initio predictive power of CI+MBPT calculations
for the these complex electronic systems.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure
State-resolved measurements of single-electron capture in slow Ne7+- and Ne8+-helium collisions
Single-electron capture in collisions of 9 keV x q Ne8+ and Ne7+ ions with He has been studied using cold-target recoil-ion momentum spectroscopy. With an improved apparatus a longitudinal momentum resolution of 0.07 au has been achieved. This momentum component is directly proportional to the difference in the binding energy of the active electron between the final and the initial state. For the first time state- resolved differential cross sections have been determined with respect to the main quantum number, subshell level and spin state of the captured electron. A comparison with recent theoretical results for energy levels in Be-like Ne is given
Decay rate measurement of the first vibrationally excited state of MgH in a cryogenic Paul trap
We present a method to measure the decay rate of the first excited
vibrational state of simple polar molecular ions being part of a Coulomb
crystal in a cryogenic linear Paul trap. Specifically, we have monitored the
decay of the == towards the ==
level in MgH by saturated laser excitation of the ==-== transition followed by state selective
resonance enhanced two-photon dissociation out of the == level. The technique enables the determination of decay rates, and
thus absorption strengths, with an accuracy at the few percent level.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
XUV frequency comb production with an astigmatism-compensated enhancement cavity
We have developed an extreme ultraviolet (XUV) frequency comb for performing ultra-high precision spectroscopy on the many XUV transitions found in highly charged ions (HCI). Femtosecond pulses from a 100 MHz phase-stabilized near-infrared frequency comb are amplified and then fed into a femtosecond enhancement cavity (fsEC) inside an ultra-high vacuum chamber. The low-dispersion fsEC coherently superposes several hundred incident pulses and, with a single cylindrical optical element, fully compensates astigmatism at the w0 = 15 µm waist cavity focus. With a gas jet installed there, intensities reaching ∼ 1014 W/cm2 generate coherent high harmonics with a comb spectrum at 100 MHz rate. We couple out of the fsEC harmonics from the 7th up to the 35th (42 eV; 30 nm) to be used in upcoming experiments on HCI frequency metrology
- …