Optogalvanic Spectroscopy of Metastable States in Yb^{+}

TL;DR

This study uses optogalvanic spectroscopy to analyze metastable states in Yb+ ions, providing precise measurements of transition properties relevant for quantum technology and metrology.

Contribution

First application of optogalvanic spectroscopy to measure isotope and hyperfine splitting in Yb+ metastable states in a discharge environment.

Findings

Measured pressure broadening coefficient of 70 ± 10 MHz/mbar for 638.6 nm transition.

Placed an upper bound of 375 MHz/nucleon on isotope splitting.

Resolved isotope and hyperfine splitting in 935.2 nm transition.

Abstract

The metastable ^{2}F_{7/2} and ^{2}D_{3/2} states of Yb^{+} are of interest for applications in metrology and quantum information and also act as dark states in laser cooling. These metastable states are commonly repumped to the ground state via the 638.6 nm ^{2}F_{7/2} -- ^{1}D[5/2]_{5/2} and 935.2 nm ^{2}D_{3/2} -- ^{3}D[3/2]_{1/2} transitions. We have performed optogalvanic spectroscopy of these transitions in Yb^{+} ions generated in a discharge. We measure the pressure broadening coefficient for the 638.6 nm transition to be 70 \pm 10 MHz mbar^{-1}. We place an upper bound of 375 MHz/nucleon on the 638.6 nm isotope splitting and show that our observations are consistent with theory for the hyperfine splitting. Our measurements of the 935.2 nm transition extend those made by Sugiyama et al, showing well-resolved isotope and hyperfine splitting. We obtain high signal to noise, sufficient for laser stabilisation applications.