Investigations of a r.f. stored Ca+ ion cloud and observation of the S-D forbidden transitions

M. Knoop , M. Vedel , F. Vedel

In order to exploit the capability of a high-Q transition for a frequency standard in the optical domain (729 nm), a stored Ca+ ion cloud in a medium-size ion trap is investigated. Long confinement times are obtained in the presence of helium as a buffer gas in the range 10-6-10-8 mbar and at a pseudopotential well depth of 62 eV. First observations of the electric quadrupole line were achieved by direct excitation of one of the first metastable doublet levels (τ≈1 s). Utilisation of a grating-stabilised diode laser in order to probe both levels when only one level is initially populated allows us to observe almost equal fluorescence intensities of both forbidden lines that show the presence of a strong fine structure mixing which exists in addition to quenching.

Domaines: Articles anciens

M. Knoop, M. Vedel, F. Vedel. Investigations of a r.f. stored Ca+ ion cloud and observation of the S-D forbidden transitions. Journal de Physique II, 1994, 4 (10), pp.1639-1650. ⟨10.1051/jp2:1994222⟩. ⟨jpa-00248067⟩