Background-free detection of trapped ions

We demonstrate a Doppler cooling and detection scheme for ions with low-lying D levels which almost entirely suppresses scattered laser light background, while retaining a high fluorescence signal and efficient cooling. We cool a single ion with a laser on the $^{2}\mathrm{S}_{\mbox{\tiny$1/2$}}\leftrightarrow {^{2}\mathrm{P}}_{\mbox{\tiny$1/2$}}$ transition as usual, but repump via the $^{2}\mathrm{P}_{\mbox{\tiny$3/2$}}$ level. By filtering out light on the cooling transition and detecting only the fluorescence from the $^{2}\mathrm{P}_{\mbox{\tiny$3/2$}}\rightarrow {^{2}\mathrm{S}}_{\mbox{\tiny$1/2$}}$ decays, we suppress the scattered laser light background count rate to 1 s^?1 while maintaining a signal of 29000 s^?1 with moderate saturation of the cooling transition. This scheme will be particularly useful for experiments where ions are trapped in close proximity to surfaces, such as the trap electrodes in microfabricated ion traps, which leads to high background scatter from the cooling beam.     

Laser assisted decay spectroscopy at the CRIS beam line at ISOLDE

The new collinear resonant ionization spectroscopy (Cris) experiment at Isolde, Cern uses laser radiation to stepwise excite and ionize an atomic beam for the purpose of ultra-sensitive detection of rare isotopes and hyperfine structure measurements. The technique also offers the ability to purify an ion beam that is contaminated with radioactive isobars, including the ground state of an isotope from its isomer. A new program using the Cris technique to select only nuclear isomeric states for decay spectroscopy commenced last year. The isomeric ion beam is selected using a resonance within its hyperfine structure and subsequently deflected to a decay spectroscopy station. This consists of a rotating wheel implantation system for alpha and beta decay spectroscopy, and up to three high purity germanium detectors for gamma-ray detection. This paper gives an introduction to the Cris technique, the current status of the laser assisted decay spectroscopy set-up and recent results from the experiment in November 2011.     

A DFG-based cavity ring-down spectrometer for trace gas sensing in the mid-infrared

Continuing studies into an all-diode laser-based 3.3 μm difference frequency generation cavity ring-down spectroscopy system are presented. Light from a 1,560 nm diode laser, amplified by an erbium-doped fibre amplifier, was mixed with 1,064 nm diode laser radiation in a bulk periodically poled lithium niobate crystal to generate 16 μW of mid-IR light at 3,346 nm with a conversion efficiency of $0.05\,\%\,{\text{W}}^{-1}\,{\text{cm}}^{-1}$ . This radiation was coupled into a 77 cm long linear cavity with average mirror reflectivities of 0.9996, and a measured baseline ring-down time of $6.07\pm 0.03\,\upmu{\rm s}$ . The potential of such a spectrometer was illustrated by investigating the $P(3)$ transition in the fundamental $\nu_{3}(F_{2})$ band of ${\text{CH}}_4$ both in a 7.5 ppmv calibrated mixture of ${\text{CH}}_4$ in air and in breath samples from methane and non-methane producers under conditions where the minimum detectable absorption coefficient ( $\alpha_{\rm min}$ ) was $2.8 \times 10^{-8}\,{\rm cm}^{-1}$ over 6 s using a ring-down time acquisition rate of 20 Hz. Allan variance measurements indicated an optimum $\alpha_{\rm min}$ of $2.9\times 10^{-9}\,{\rm cm}^{-1}$ over 44 s.     

All-carbon detector with buried graphite pillars in CVD diamond

A diamond detector of 3D architecture without any metallization is developed for spectroscopy of ionizing radiation and single particles detection. The carbon electrode system was fabricated using a femtosecond infrared laser ( $\lambda $ = 1,030 nm) to induce graphitization on the surface and inside 4.0  $\times $  4.0  $\times $  0.4 mm $^{3}$ single-crystal chemical vapor deposition diamond slab, resulting in an array of 84 buried graphite pillars of 30  $\upmu $ m diameter formed orthogonally to the surface and connected by surface graphite strips. Sensitivity to ionizing radiation with $^{90}$ Sr $\upbeta $ -source has been measured for the 3D detector and high charge collection efficiency is demonstrated.     

Quantum control of 88Sr+ in a miniature linear Paul trap

We report on the construction and characterization of an apparatus for quantum information experiments using ⁸⁸Sr⁺ ions. A miniature linear radio-frequency (rf) Paul trap was designed and built. Trap frequencies above 1 MHz in all directions are obtained with 50 V on the trap end-caps and less than 1 W of rf power. We encode a quantum bit (qubit) in the two spin states of the S _1/2 electronic ground-state of the ion. We constructed all the necessary laser sources for laser cooling and full coherent manipulation of the ions’ external and internal states. Oscillating magnetic fields are used for coherent spin rotations. High-fidelity readout as well as a coherence time of 2.5 ms are demonstrated. Following resolved sideband cooling the average axial vibrational quanta of a single trapped ion is $\bar{n}=0.05$ and a heating rate of $\dot{\bar{n}}=0.016~\mathrm{ms}^{-1}$ is measured.     

A high-precision segmented Paul trap with minimized micromotion for an optical multiple-ion clock

We present a new setup to sympathetically cool ¹¹⁵In⁺ ions with ¹⁷²Yb⁺ for optical clock spectroscopy. A first prototype ion trap made of glass-reinforced thermoset laminates was built, based on a design that minimizes axial micromotion and offers full control of the ion dynamics in all three dimensions. We detail the trap manufacturing process and the characterization of micromotion in this trap. A calibration of the photon-correlation spectroscopy technique demonstrates a resolution of 1.1 nm in motional amplitude of our measurements. With this method, we demonstrate a sensitivity to systematic clock shifts due to excess micromotion of $|(\Updelta\nu/\nu)_{\rm mm}|=7.7\times10^{-20}$ along the direction of the spectroscopy laser beam. Owing to our on-board filter electronics on the ion trap chips, no rf phase shifts could be resolved at this level. We measured rf fields over a range of 400 μm along the ion trap axis and demonstrated a region of 70 μm where an optical frequency standard with a fractional inaccuracy of ≤1 × 10^?18 due to micromotion can be operated.     

Axial strain and temperature sensing characteristics of the single–coreless–single mode fiber structure-based fiber ring laser

This paper experimentally demonstrated a singlemode–coreless–singlemode (SCS) fiber structure-based fiber ring cavity laser for strain and temperature measurement. The basis of the sensing system is the multimodal interference occurs in coreless fiber, and the transmission spectrum is sensitive to the ambient perturbation. In this sensing system, the SCS fiber structure not only acts as the sensing head of the sensor but also the band-pass filter of the ring laser. Blue shift with strain sensitivity of \(\sim\) ?2 pm/με ranging from 0 to 730 με and red shift with temperature sensitivity of \(\sim\) 11 pm/°C ranging from 5 to 75 °C have been achieved. Experimental results also show the proposal has great potential in using long-distance operation. The fiber ring laser sensing system has a optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) more than 50 and 3 dB bandwidth less than 0.05 nm. The result shows that the coreless fiber has no improvement of the temperature and axial strain sensitivity. However, compared to the common singlemode–multimode–singlemode fiber structure sensors, the laser sensing system has the additional advantages of high OSNR, high intensity and narrow 3 dB bandwidth, and thus improves the accuracy.     

Laser nanoablation of graphite

Experimental data on laser ablation of highly oriented pyrolitic graphite by nanosecond pulsed UV ( $\lambda =193$  nm) and green ( $\lambda =532$  nm) lasers are presented. It was found that below graphite vaporization threshold $\approx $ 1 J/cm $^{2}$ , the nanoablation regime can be realized with material removal rates as low as 10 $^{-3}$  nm/pulse. The difference between physical (vaporization) and physical–chemical (heating + oxidation) ablation regimes is discussed. Special attention is paid to the influence of laser fluence and pulse number on ablation kinetics. Possibility of laser-induced graphite surface nanostructuring has been demonstrated. Combination of tightly focused laser beam and sharp tip of scanning probe microscope was applied to improve material nanoablation.     

Determination of the absolute microwave frequency of laser-cooled ^{171}\hbox {Yb}^+

\(^{171}\hbox {Yb}^+\) ions confined within a linear quadrupole trap were laser cooled to below 1 K. The microwave frequency of the hyperfine splitting of the ground state was continuously measured over 6 h. Frequency was corrected by evaluating the systematic shifts in each clock measurement. The absolute microwave frequency was determined as 12 642 812 118.468 2(4) Hz, in strong agreement with previously reported measurements.     

Nitrogen optical emission during nanosecond laser ablation of metals: prompt electrons or photo-ionization?

Experiments on the interaction of metal targets with a Nd:YAG laser beam ( \(\lambda \)  = 1,064 nm, intensity \(10^{10}\) – \(10^{11}\,\hbox {W/cm}{^2}\) ) are carried out in a finite Nitrogen pressure environment. The observed \(\hbox {N}_2\) spectra are unambiguous evidence of the existence of an ionization and excitation source, arriving at the observation volume prior to the plume. Such a source can be either prompt electrons or VUV radiation. The analysis reveals that the prompt electron interpretation requires energies in excess of 1 keV, incompatible with any acceleration mechanisms relevant for such laser intensities. On the other hand, VUV radiation is sufficiently strong to explain the observed spectra.     

Growth of strongly textured FeCO 3 thin films for application in research of nuclear quantum optics with ultrashort-pulsed laser deposition

Growth of strongly textured $\mathrm{FeCO}_{3}$ thin films on substrates was achieved with ultrashort-pulsed laser deposition using 810-nm, 46-fs ablation pulses. The crystallinity and composition were verified with X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Using Mössbauer spectroscopy, it is shown that the deposited $\mathrm{FeCO}_{3}$ thin films possess the film quality required for application in research of nuclear quantum optics. It is found that a relatively low substrate temperature is crucial for growing a strongly textured film of $\mathrm{FeCO}_{3}$ while avoiding decomposition of $\mathrm{FeCO}_{3}$ into $\mathrm{Fe}_{2}\mathrm{O}_{3}$ and $\mathrm{CO}_{2}$ . This supports the importance of the use of ultrashort-pulsed laser deposition in providing adatoms with high mobility for attaining good crystallinity. The surface morphology was characterized by surface profilometry, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. It is found to be significantly affected by changing the ablation laser parameters, including laser fluence, pulse duration, and on-target spot size. The results show that the peak deposition flux must be below approximately 0.03 nm/pulse in order to grow a flat film.     

Improving anti-reflectivity and laser damage threshold of \hbox {SiO}_{2}/\hbox {ZrO}_{2} thin films by laser shock peening at 1064 nm

In this study, anti-reflection (AR) \(\hbox {SiO}_{2}/ \hbox {ZrO}_{2}\) thin films with 3-layers were designed and fabricated by the essential Macleod software and physical vapor deposition, respectively. In order to improve the optical and physical properties of the prepared samples, laser shock peening (LSP) technique was applied. For this purpose, an Argon Fluoride Excimer laser \((\lambda =193 \,\text {nm})\) with 110 and 240 mJ energies and 1 Hz frequency at different pulses was used. The effect of LSP method in improving transmissions and laser damage thresholds of the prepared samples was proved by using UV–Vis–IR spectroscopy in the wavelength range of 400–1200 nm and international standard ISO11254 at 1064 nm. In addition, scanning electron microscopy was used to check the effect of applying LSP.     

The Mössbauer spectroscopy studies of matrix changes during continuous heating from as-quenched state of high carbon tool steel

Helium is unique in the sense that about 3% of low-energy antiprotons stopped in it survive with an average lifetime of a few microseconds, forming metastable states of the exotic antiprotonic helium atom ( $\overline{p}$ -He^?+?+?-e^??). This lifetime is sufficient to carry out laser spectroscopy measurements of atomic transitions of this exotic atom. The antiproton-to-electron mass ratio $M_{\overline{p}}/m_e$ can be deduced from comparisons with three-body QED calculations. A systematic study of the energy levels of this exotic atom started soon after its discovery, continuously aiming for higher precision (for a review see Yamazaki et al., Phys Rep 366:183, (2002) and references therein). Recently, at the Antiproton Decelerator of CERN, a femtosecond optical frequency comb and continuous-wave pulse-amplified laser were used to measure 12 transition frequencies to fractional precisions of (9???16)×10^???9, yielding an antiproton-to-electron mass ratio of 1836.152674(5).     

Improved method to retrieve aerosol optical properties from combined elastic backscatter and Raman lidar data

Two methods to load a microtrap consisting of two concentric microwire loops of radii 300 and 660 μm carrying oppositely oriented currents are demonstrated. Atoms can be directly loaded into the microtrap from a surface magneto-optical trap or alternatively using a far-off resonance optical dipole trap (FORT) as an intermediate step. About 1 × 10^{5 87}Rb atoms can be loaded into the microtrap using either technique although the FORT achieves a lower temperature. The FORT is well suited to loading a linear array of 3 microtraps that are aligned with the propagation direction of the infrared laser. Atoms can be trapped in either the $5S_{1/2}\;F=1$ or 2 ground state hyperfine level. The position of the microtrapped atom cloud can be precisely adjusted using a bias magnetic field over a distance of 350 to slightly <50 μm from the atom chip surface.     

Rejection of randomly coinciding events in ZnMoO_4 scintillating bolometers

Random coincidence of events (particularly from two neutrino double beta decay) could be one of the main sources of background in the search for neutrinoless double beta decay with cryogenic bolometers due to their poor time resolution. Pulse-shape discrimination by using front edge analysis, mean-time and \(\chi ^2\) methods were applied to discriminate randomly coinciding events in ZnMoO \(_4\) cryogenic scintillating bolometers. These events can be effectively rejected at the level of 99 % by the analysis of the heat signals with rise-time of about 14 ms and signal-to-noise ratio of 900, and at the level of 92 % by the analysis of the light signals with rise-time of about 3 ms and signal-to-noise ratio of 30, under the requirement to detect 95 % of single events. These rejection efficiencies are compatible with extremely low background levels in the region of interest of neutrinoless double beta decay of \(^{100}\) Mo for enriched ZnMoO \(_4\) detectors, of the order of \(10^{-4}\)  counts/(y keV kg). Pulse-shape parameters have been chosen on the basis of the performance of a real massive ZnMoO \(_4\) scintillating bolometer. Importance of the signal-to-noise ratio, correct finding of the signal start and choice of an appropriate sampling frequency are discussed.     

Structural and optical properties of non-polar ZnO/Zn0.81Mg0.19O multiple quantum wells grown on r -plane sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

This work investigates the structural and optical properties of non-polar ZnO/Zn_0.81Mg_0.19O multiple quantum wells (MQWs), which have been prepared on $r$ -plane sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The MQWs are ( $11\bar{2}0$ ) oriented ( $a$ -plane) as identified by the X-ray diffraction pattern. Structural properties are anisotropic and surfaces of MQWs show stripes running along the ZnO $c$ -axis direction. Sharp interfaces between the well layers and barrier layers can be clearly resolved by the secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis. The room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) resulting from the well regions exhibits a significant blueshift with respect to ZnO single layer. Exciton emission in the ZnO QW is resolved into two components in the temperature dependence of the PL spectra. Two types of excitons are responsible for this feature. The excitons trapped by the potential minima dominate at low temperature, and the excitons localized in the “free exciton states” dominate at relatively high temperature. An activation energy of 7.3 meV for quenching of the exciton emission is in good agreement with the transition of the two types of excitons.     

Nucleon and {\Delta} Elastic and Transition Form Factors

We present a unified study of nucleon and \({\Delta}\) elastic and transition form factors, and compare predictions made using a framework built upon a Faddeev equation kernel and interaction vertices that possess QCD-like momentum dependence with results obtained using a symmetry-preserving treatment of a vector \({\otimes}\) vector contact-interaction. The comparison emphasises that experiments are sensitive to the momentum dependence of the running couplings and masses in the strong interaction sector of the Standard Model and highlights that the key to describing hadron properties is a veracious expression of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking in the bound-state problem. Amongst the results we describe, the following are of particular interest: \({G_{E}^{p}(Q^{2})/G_{M}^{p}(Q^{2})}\) possesses a zero at Q ² = 9.5 GeV²; any change in the interaction which shifts a zero in the proton ratio to larger Q ² relocates a zero in \({G_{E}^{n}(Q^{2})/G_M^{n}(Q^{2})}\) to smaller Q ²; there is likely a value of momentum transfer above which \({G_{E}^{n} > G_{E}^{p}}\) ; and the presence of strong diquark correlations within the nucleon is sufficient to understand empirical extractions of the flavour-separated form factors. Regarding the \({\Delta(1232)}\) -baryon, we find that, inter alia: the electric monopole form factor exhibits a zero; the electric quadrupole form factor is negative, large in magnitude, and sensitive to the nature and strength of correlations in the \({\Delta(1232)}\) Faddeev amplitude; and the magnetic octupole form factor is negative so long as rest-frame P- and D-wave correlations are included. In connection with the \({N \to \Delta}\) transition, the momentum-dependence of the magnetic transition form factor, \({G_{M}^{*}}\) , matches that of \({G_{M}^{n}}\) once the momentum transfer is high enough to pierce the meson-cloud; and the electric quadrupole ratio is a keen measure of diquark and orbital angular momentum correlations, the zero in which is obscured by meson-cloud effects on the domain currently accessible to experiment. Importantly, within each framework, identical propagators and vertices are sufficient to describe all properties discussed herein. Our analysis and predictions should therefore serve as motivation for measurement of elastic and transition form factors involving the nucleon and its resonances at high photon virtualities using modern electron-beam facilities.     

197 nm femtosecond laser-pulse duration: comparison of autocorrelation measurements

An easy and reliable way is presented to measure the duration of UV femtosecond laser pulses of λ < 200 nm. The used autocorrelation techniques are based on two-photon absorption (TPA) in different TPA media, especially calcium fluoride (CaF₂). For 197 nm, the laser-pulse energy transmission and the laser-induced fluorescence of self-trapped excitons at 278 nm are applied. Both methods yield nearly the same second-order autocorrelation functions allowing to analyze the investigated laser pulse and obtain its duration of $(350\pm10)$  fs.     

A flexible scintillation light apparatus for rare event searches

Compelling experimental evidences of neutrino oscillations and their implication that neutrinos are massive particles have given neutrinoless double beta decay ( \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) ) a central role in astroparticle physics. In fact, the discovery of this elusive decay would be a major breakthrough, unveiling that neutrino and antineutrino are the same particle and that the lepton number is not conserved. It would also impact our efforts to establish the absolute neutrino mass scale and, ultimately, understand elementary particle interaction unification. All current experimental programs to search for \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) are facing with the technical and financial challenge of increasing the experimental mass while maintaining incredibly low levels of spurious background. The new concept described in this paper could be the answer which combines all the features of an ideal experiment: energy resolution, low cost mass scalability, isotope choice flexibility and many powerful handles to make the background negligible. The proposed technology is based on the use of arrays of silicon detectors cooled to 120 K to optimize the collection of the scintillation light emitted by ultra-pure crystals. It is shown that with a 54 kg array of natural CaMoO \(_4\) scintillation detectors of this type it is possible to yield a competitive sensitivity on the half-life of the \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) of \(^{100}\) Mo as high as \(\sim \) \(10^{24}\)  years in only 1 year of data taking. The same array made of \(^{40}\) Ca \(^{\mathrm {nat}}\) MoO \(_4\) scintillation detectors (to get rid of the continuous background coming from the two neutrino double beta decay of \(^{48}\) Ca) will instead be capable of achieving the remarkable sensitivity of \(\sim \) \(10^{25}\)  years on the half-life of \(^{100}\) Mo \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) in only 1 year of measurement.     

Laser spectroscopy methods for probing highly charged ions at GSI

We describe two opposite and partly complementary experimental approaches for performing high-precision laser spectroscopy of dipole-forbidden transitions in highly charged ions. We report on the wavelength determination of the ground state hyperfine transitions in hydrogen-like and lithium-like bismuth ions confined in the experimental storage ring at GSI. Direct comparison of the experimental results with theoretical predictions reveals an agreement of the specific hyperfine-structure splitting difference $\Delta ^{\prime }E$ within the 1- σ confidence interval of the experimental value. Additionally, we discuss an experimental strategy based on ion manipulation and cooling in a cylindrical open-endcap Penning trap to further increase the precision of the previous measurement. Trapping and laser cooling of external produced singly charged magnesium ions is demonstrated. This represents a first step towards sympathetic cooling of simultaneously confined ion species in order to perform laser spectroscopy measurements on highly charged ions nearly at rest. These measurements will offer new prospects in the field of laser-based tests of quantum electrodynamics in strong electric and magnetic fields.