Measurement of the Yb I $^1S_0 - ^1P_1$ transition frequency at 399 nm using an optical frequency comb

TL;DR

This paper precisely measures the Yb I $^1S_0 - ^1P_1$ transition frequency at 399 nm using an optical frequency comb, correcting previous measurement errors and verifying accuracy through multiple systematic checks.

Contribution

The study provides a highly accurate measurement of the Yb I transition frequency, addressing errors in prior methods and demonstrating systematic error control and isotope shift measurements.

Findings

Measured Yb I transition frequency as 751 526 533.49 ± 0.33 MHz

Verified measurement accuracy with Rb and Cs transitions

Presented isotope shift data for all stable isotopes

Abstract

We determine the frequency of the Yb I $^1S_0 - ^1P_1$ transition at 399 nm using an optical frequency comb. Although this transition was measured previously using an optical transfer cavity [D. Das et al., Phys. Rev. A 72, 032506 (2005)], recent work has uncovered significant errors in that method. We compare our result of 751 526 533.49 $\pm$ 0.33 MHz for the Yb-174 isotope with those from the literature and discuss observed differences. We verify the correctness of our method by measuring the frequencies of well-known transitions in Rb and Cs, and by demonstrating proper control of systematic errors in both laser metrology and atomic spectroscopy. We also demonstrate the effect of quantum interference due to hyperfine structure in a divalent atomic system and present isotope shift measurements for all stable isotopes.