Buffer gas induced collision shift for the $^{88}$Sr $\bf{^1S_0-^3P_1}$ clock transition

TL;DR

This study measures buffer gas collision shifts in the $^{88}$Sr $^1S_0-^3P_1$ transition, revealing larger broadening and smaller shifts than previous models, with implications for optical lattice clock accuracy.

Contribution

It provides experimental data on buffer gas collision shifts for the $^{88}$Sr $^1S_0-^3P_1$ transition, highlighting effects on atomic loss and clock transition stability.

Findings

Helium causes the largest fractional shift of 1.6×10^{-9} Torr^{-1}.

Observed broadening exceeds previous impact calculations.

Results suggest velocity-changing collisions reduce the collision shift.

Abstract

Precision saturation spectroscopy of the $^{88}{\rm Sr} ^1S_0-^3P_1$ is performed in a vapor cell filled with various rare gas including He, Ne, Ar, and Xe. By continuously calibrating the absolute frequency of the probe laser, buffer gas induced collision shifts of $\sim $kHz are detected with gas pressure of 1-20 mTorr. Helium gave the largest fractional shift of $1.6 \times 10^{-9} {\rm Torr}^{-1}$. Comparing with a simple impact calculation and a Doppler-limited experiment of Holtgrave and Wolf [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 72}, 012711 (2005)], our results show larger broadening and smaller shifting coefficient, indicating effective atomic loss due to velocity changing collisions. The applicability of the result to the $^1S_0-^3P_0$ optical lattice clock transition is also discussed.