Hyperfine structure and isotope shifts of the $^1P_1 \leftarrow{} ^{1}S_0$ transition in atomic zinc

TL;DR

This study precisely measures the hyperfine structure, isotope shifts, and related properties of the zinc atomic transition at 213.8 nm using advanced laser spectroscopy techniques, providing detailed atomic data.

Contribution

It introduces a cryogenic buffer gas beam method combined with orthogonal fluorescence detection to resolve isotopes and measure hyperfine parameters in zinc.

Findings

Hyperfine structure parameters for $^{67}$Zn determined as A=20(2) MHz, B=10(5) MHz.

Isotope shifts and absolute frequency measured with 1 MHz uncertainty.

Method enables resolution of isotopes with otherwise unresolved resonances.

Abstract

We report absolute frequency, isotope shift, radiative lifetime and hyperfine structure measurements of the $^1P_1 \leftarrow{} ^{1}S_0$ (213.8 nm) transition in Zn I using a cryogenic buffer gas beam. Laser-induced fluorescence is collected with two orthogonally oriented detectors to take advantage of differences in the emission pattern of the isotopes. This enables clear distinction between isotopes whose resonances are otherwise unresolved, and a measurement of the fermion hyperfine structure parameters, $A(^{67}$Zn)$=20(2)$ MHz and $B(^{67}$Zn)$=10(5)$ MHz. We reference our frequency measurements to an ultralow expansion cavity and achieve an uncertainty at the level of 1 MHz, about 1 percent of the natural linewidth of the transition.