We present an analysis of the recent measurements of the light-shift ratio in ${\text{Ba}}^{+}$ at two different wavelengths that enables us to reduce the uncertainty of the largest $E1$ dipole matrix elements of ${\text{Ba}}^{+}$. These matrix elements are, for instance, of interest for the proposed parity-nonconservation (PNC) experiment in ${\text{Ba}}^{+}$. We show that a new measurement of the light-shift ratio in ${\text{Ba}}^{+}$ at a wavelength of 350 nm could further reduce the uncertainty of the (for PNC studies most important) $⟨5D_{3/2}|\left|D\right||6P_{1/2}⟩$ matrix element. Finally, as groundwork for the planned PNC experiment at KVI, we present relativistic coupled-cluster calculations of the $E1$ matrix elements for ${\text{Ra}}^{+}$, and investigate the potential of similar light-shift ratio measurements in this ion.

• Received 26 March 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.79.052512