Transition Frequencies and Hyperfine Structure in $^{113,115}$In$^+$: Application of a Liquid-Metal Ion Source for Collinear Laser Spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the first use of a liquid-metal ion source for collinear laser spectroscopy, achieving high precision measurements of hyperfine structures and isotope shifts in indium ions, with improved accuracy over previous data.

Contribution

It introduces a liquid-metal ion source for collinear laser spectroscopy and achieves unprecedented precision in hyperfine and isotope shift measurements in $^{113,115}$In$^+$.

Findings

Achieved high beam quality with low transverse emittance.

Improved hyperfine constants and center-of-gravity frequency by over two orders of magnitude.

Deduced isotope shift between $^{113}$In and $^{115}$In with high accuracy.

Abstract

We demonstrate the first application of a liquid-metal ion source for collinear laser spectroscopy in proof-of-principle measurements on naturally abundant In$^+$. The superior beam quality, i.e., the actively stabilized current and energy of a beam with very low transverse emittance, allowed us to perform precision spectroscopy on the $5s^2\;^1\mathrm{S}_0 \rightarrow 5s5p\;^3\mathrm{P}_1$ intercombination transition in $^{115}$In$^+$, which is to our knowledge the slowest transition measured with collinear fluorescence laser spectroscopy so far. By applying collinear and anticollinear spectroscopy, we improved the center-of-gravity frequency $\nu_\mathrm{cg}=1\,299\,617\,759.\,3\,(1.2)$ and the hyperfine constants $A=6957.19\,(28)$\,MHz and $B=-443.7\,(2.4)$\,MHz by more than two orders of magnitude. A similar accuracy was reached for $^{113}$In$^+$ in combination with literature data and the isotope shift between both naturally abundant isotopes was deduced to $\nu(^{113}\mathrm{In})-\nu(^{115}\mathrm{In})=696.3\,(3.1)$\,MHz. Nuclear alignment induced by optical pumping in a preparation section of the ion beamline was demonstrated as a pump-and-probe approach to provide sharp features on top of the Doppler broadened resonance profile.