Observation of a narrow inner-shell orbital transition in atomic erbium at 1299 nm

A. Patscheider (1) , B. Yang (1) , G. Natale (1) , D. Petter (1) , L. Chomaz (1) , M. J. Mark (1, 2) , G. Hovhannesyan (3) , Maxence Lepers (3) , F. Ferlaino (1, 2)

1 Institut für Experimentalphysik [Innsbruck]
2 IQOQI - Institut fur Quantenoptik und Quanteninformation
3 ICB - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne

We report on the observation and coherent excitation of atoms on the narrow inner-shell orbital transition, connecting the erbium ground state [Xe]4f^12(3H6 )6s^2 to the excited state [Xe]4 f^11((4I15/2 )^0)5d(5D3/2 )6s2(15/2, 3/2)^07. This transition corresponds to a wavelength of 1299 nm and is optically closed. We perform high-resolutionspectroscopy to extract the gJ factor of the 1299-nm state and to determine the frequency shift for four bosonic isotopes. We further demonstrate coherent control of the atomic state and extract a lifetime of 178(19) ms, which corresponds to a linewidth of 0.9(1) Hz. The experimental findings are in good agreement with our semi-empirical model. In addition, we present theoretical calculations of the atomic polarizability, revealing several different magic-wavelength conditions. Finally, we make use of the vectorial polarizability and confirm a possible magic wavelength at 532 nm.

Domaines: Physique Atomique [physics.atom-ph]; Chimie-Physique [physics.chem-ph]; Physique Quantique [quant-ph]

A. Patscheider, B. Yang, G. Natale, D. Petter, L. Chomaz, et al.. Observation of a narrow inner-shell orbital transition in atomic erbium at 1299 nm. Physical Review Research, 2021, 3 (3), pp.033256. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.033256⟩. ⟨hal-03364115⟩