Shelving spectroscopy of the strontium intercombination line

We present a spectroscopy scheme for the 7 kHz wide 689 nm intercombination line of strontium. We rely on shelving detection, where electrons are first excited to a metastable state by the spectroscopy laser before their state is probed using the broad transition at 461 nm. As in the similar setting...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of physics. B, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics, 2020-04, Vol.53 (8), p.85005
Main Authors: Manai, I, Molineri, A, Fréjaville, C, Duval, C, Bataille, P, Journet, R, Wiotte, F, Laburthe-Tolra, B, Maréchal, E, Cheneau, M, Robert-de-Saint-Vincent, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atomic Physics
cold atoms
Condensed Matter
frequency stabilization
laser spectroscopy
optical clocks
Physics
Quantum Gases
Quantum Physics
shelving detection
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Summary:We present a spectroscopy scheme for the 7 kHz wide 689 nm intercombination line of strontium. We rely on shelving detection, where electrons are first excited to a metastable state by the spectroscopy laser before their state is probed using the broad transition at 461 nm. As in the similar setting of calcium beam clocks, this enhances dramatically the signal strength as compared to direct saturated fluorescence or absorption spectroscopy of the narrow line. We implement shelving spectroscopy both in directed atomic beams and hot vapor cells with isotropic atomic velocities. We measure a fractional frequency instability ∼2 × 10−12 at 1s limited by technical noise-about one order of magnitude above shot noise limitations for our experimental parameters. Our work illustrates the robustness and flexibility of a scheme that can be very easily implemented in the reference cells or ovens of most existing strontium experiments, and may find applications for low-complexity clocks.
ISSN:0953-4075
1361-6455
DOI:10.1088/1361-6455/ab707f