A data acquisition system is described that is designed to stabilize cooling and probe rates to maximize detection sensitivity and minimize possible systematic errors due to correlations between drifting experimental conditions and varying drive parameters. Experimental parameters that affect the Yb171 5D3/2 hyperfine state preparation and detection efficiency are characterized and optimized. A set of wait times for optimal sampling of the D3/2(F=2) lifetime is chosen and used to measure that lifetime with high statistical sensitivity. A systematic variation in this lifetime seems to be apparent. The source of the variation was not identified, but ion number and cooling rate appear to be ruled out. A net determination is made of tau=61.8ms+-(0.6)_stat+-(6.4)_sys which is significantly longer than other measurements of the same quantity. An alternate shelving scheme is proposed that would provide S-D state discrimination for Yb even isotopes as well as improved sensitivity for D state hyperfine discrimination in odd isotopes.
Magneto-optically trapped atoms enable the determination of lifetimes of metastable states and higher lying excited states like the $rm{5d^{2}~^{3}F_{2}}$ state in barium. The state is efficiently populated by driving strong transitions from metastable states within the cooling cycle of the barium MOT. The lifetime is inferred from the increase of MOT fluorescence after the transfer of up to $30,%$ of the trapped atoms to this state. The radiative decay of the $rm{5d^{2}~^{3}F_{2}}$ state cascades to the cooling cycle of the MOT with a probability of $96.0(7),%$ corresponding to a trap loss of $4.0(7),%$ and its lifetime is determined to $rm{160(10)~mu s}$. This is in good agreement with the theoretically calculated lifetime of $rm{190~mu s}$ [J. Phys. B, {bf 40}, 227 (2007)]. The determined loss of $4.0(7),%$ from the cooling cycle is compared with the theoretically calculated branching ratios. This measurement extends the efficacy of trapped atoms to measure lifetimes of higher, long-lived states and validate the atomic structure calculations of heavy multi-electron systems.
Qubits encoded in hyperfine states of trapped ions are ideal for quantum computation given their long lifetimes and low sensitivity to magnetic fields, yet they suffer from off-resonant scattering during detection often limiting their measurement fidelity. In ${}^{171}$Yb$^{+}$ this is exacerbated by a low fluorescence yield, which leads to a need for complex and expensive hardware - a problematic bottleneck especially when scaling up the number of qubits. We demonstrate a detection routine based on electron shelving to address this issue in ${}^{171}$Yb$^{+}$ and achieve a 5.6$times$ reduction in single-ion detection error on an avalanche photodiode to $1.8(2)times10^{-3}$ in a 100 $mu$s detection period, and a 4.3$times$ error reduction on an electron multiplying CCD camera, with $7.7(2)times10^{-3}$ error in 400 $mu$s. We further improve the characterization of a repump transition at 760 nm to enable a more rapid reset of the auxiliary $^2$F$_{7/2}$ states populated after shelving. Finally, we examine the detection fidelity limit using the long-lived $^2$F$_{7/2}$ state, achieving a further 300$times$ and 12$times$ reduction in error to $6(7)times10^{-6}$ and $6.3(3)times10^{-4}$ in 1 ms on the respective detectors. While shelving-rate limited in our setup, we suggest various techniques to realize this detection method at speeds compatible with quantum information processing, providing a pathway to ultra-high fidelity detection in ${}^{171}$Yb$^{+}$.
We measured the absolute frequency of the optical clock transition 1S0 (F = 1/2) - 3P0 (F = 1/2) of 171Yb atoms confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice and it was determined to be 518 295 836 590 863.5(8.1) Hz. The frequency was measured against Terrestrial Time (TT; the SI second on the geoid) by using an optical frequency comb of which the frequency was phase-locked to an H-maser as a flywheel oscillator traceable to TT. The magic wavelength was also measured as 394 798.48(79) GHz. The results are in good agreement with two previous measurements of other institutes within the specified uncertainty of this work.
The lifetime of the metastable 5d$^2$D$_{5/2}$ state has been measured for a single trapped Ba$^+$ ion in a Paul trap in Ultra High Vacuum (UHV) in the 10$^{-10}$ mbar pressure range. A total of 5046 individual periods when the ion was shelved in this state have been recorded. A preliminary value $tau_{D_{5/2}} = 26.4(1.7)$~s is obtained through extrapolation to zero residual gas pressure.
We measure the lifetime of the cesium $5^2D_{5/2}$ state using a time-resolved single-photon-counting method. We excite atoms in a hot vapor cell via an electric quadrupole transition at a wavelength of $685,mathrm{nm}$ and record the fluorescence of a cascade decay at a wavelength of $852,mathrm{nm}$. We extract a lifetime of $1353(5),mathrm{ns}$ for the $5^2D_{5/2}$ state, in agreement with a recent theoretical prediction. In particular, the observed lifetime is consistent with the literature values of the polarizabilities of the cesium $6P$ states. Our measurement contributes to resolving a long-standing disagreement between a number of experimental and theoretical results.