Lifetime measurements of the 5d states of rubidium

TL;DR

This paper reports precise measurements of the lifetimes of the 5D states in rubidium atoms using time-correlated single photon counting within a magneto-optical trap, providing valuable data for atomic physics research.

Contribution

The study introduces new lifetime measurements of the rubidium 5D states using a two-step excitation and fluorescence detection in a magneto-optical trap, with improved accuracy over previous data.

Findings

Measured the 5D_{3/2} lifetime as 246.3(1.6) ns.

Measured the 5D_{5/2} lifetime as 238.5(2.3) ns.

Demonstrated the use of fluorescence detection for precise atomic state lifetime measurements.

Abstract

We present lifetime measurements of the $5D_{3/2}$ and $5D_{5/2}$ states of rubidium using the time correlated single photon counting method. We perform the experiment in a magneto-optical trap of $^{87}$Rb atoms using a two-step excitation with the trap laser at 780 nm as the first step. We record the 761.9 nm fluorescence from the decay of the $5D_{3/2}$ state to the $5P_{1/2}$ state, and measure the lifetime of the $5D_{3/2}$ state $\tau=246.3(1.6)$ ns. We record the 420.2 nm fluorescence from the cascade decay of the $5D_{5/2}$ state to the $5S_{1/2}$ state through the $6P_{3/2}$ state, and extract the lifetime of the $5D_{5/2}$ state ${\tau}=238.5(2.3)$ ns.