Abstract
We report the first experimental determination of the hyperfine quenching rate of the transition in with nuclear spin . This rate determines the natural linewidth and the Rabi frequency of the clock transition of a Yb optical frequency standard. Our technique involves spectrally resolved fluorescence decay measurements of the lowest lying levels of neutral Yb atoms embedded in a solid Ne matrix. The solid Ne provides a simple way to trap a large number of atoms as well as an efficient mechanism for populating . The decay rates in solid Ne are modified by medium effects including the index-of-refraction dependence. We find the hyperfine quenching rate to be for free , which agrees with recent ab initio calculations.
- Received 16 April 2014
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.033003
© 2014 American Physical Society