Measurement of the spin-dipolar part of the tensor polarizability of $^{87}$Rb

TL;DR

This study measures the magnetic-dipole hyperfine interaction's contribution to the tensor polarizability of $^{87}$Rb's ground state, improving understanding of black-body shifts in atomic clocks and demonstrating methods for spectroscopic analysis under strong fields.

Contribution

It isolates the magnetic-dipole hyperfine contribution to tensor polarizability in $^{87}$Rb, enhancing precision in atomic clock shift estimations and providing a new spectroscopic methodology.

Findings

Quantified the hyperfine contribution to tensor polarizability.

Separated nuclear electric-quadrupole interaction effects.

Improved estimates of black-body shifts in Rb clocks.

Abstract

We report on the measurement of the contribution of the magnetic-dipole hyperfine interaction to the tensor polarizability of the electronic ground-state in $^{87}$Rb. This contribution was isolated by measuring the differential shift of the clock transition frequency in $^{87}$Rb atoms that were optically trapped in the focus of an intense CO$_2$ laser beam. By comparing to previous tensor polarizability measurements in $^{87}$Rb, the contribution of the interaction with the nuclear electric-quadrupole moment was isolated as well. Our measurement will enable better estimation of black-body shifts in Rb atomic clocks. The methods reported here are applicable for future spectroscopic studies of atoms and molecules under strong quasi-static fields.