Studies of quantum jumps in a single /sup 25/Mg/sup +/ ion held in a Penning trap

Author

Powell, H. ; Irvine, W. ; van Eijkelenborg, M.A. ; Segal, D.M. ; Thompson, Reid C.

Author_Institution

Imperial Coll. of Sci., Technol. & Med., London, UK

fYear

2000

fDate

10-15 Sept. 2000

Abstract

Summary form only given. We have performed a study of quantum jumps in single magnesium ions held in a Penning trap. This system is unusual in that quantum jumps may be observed using only a single laser frequency which serves to laser cool the ion (providing fluorescence for detection), shelve the ion in a metastable state (via an off-resonant Raman transition) and also to repump the ion from the metastable state back into the cooling cycle (again via a Raman transition). Single /sup 24/Mg/sup +/ ions have been studied in a Penning trap before but we have predicted and now observed a number of interesting effects that occur only in /sup 25/Mg/sup +/. We have also trapped single ions of /sup 26/Mg/sup +/ and confirmed that their quantum jump behaviour is similar to that of /sup 24/Mg/sup +/ as expected. The novel features in the behaviour of /sup 25/Mg/sup +/ are due to the presence of hyperfine structure in this ion.

Keywords

fluorescence; hyperfine structure; laser cooling; magnesium; metastable states; particle traps; radiation pressure; /sup 24/Mg/sup +/ ions; /sup 25/Mg/sup +/; Mg; Penning trap; Raman transition; cooling cycle; hyperfine structure; laser cooled ion; metastable state; quantum jump behaviour; quantum jumps; single /sup 25/Mg/sup +/ ion; single laser frequency; single magnesium ions; trapped single ions; Data analysis; Optimized production technology;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Quantum Electronics Conference, 2000. Conference Digest. 2000 International

Conference_Location

Nice, France

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6318-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IQEC.2000.907969

Filename

907969