Studies of trapped strontium ions in low magnetic fields

The effect of weak magnetic fields ( 1 mT) on small clouds and single ions of strontium has been studied. The fluorescence rate and hence the cooling efficiency is sharply reduced for fields of less than around 0.2 mT. The magnetic field also splits the various levels involved through the Zeeman effect. In particular, the²S_1/2–²D_5/2 transition at 674 nm, which is the basis for a potential optical frequency standard, is split into a maximum of 10 components, depending upon the experimental geometry. This is studied for various configurations of the magnetic field and 674 nm laser polarization. The implication for frequency-standards work is that the standard will need to be operated in a small but highly stable field.