Highly charged ions for atomic clocks, quantum information, and search for α variation

M S Safronova; V A Dzuba; V V Flambaum; U I Safronova; S G Porsev; M G Kozlov

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.030801

Highly charged ions for atomic clocks, quantum information, and search for α variation

Phys Rev Lett. 2014 Jul 18;113(3):030801. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.030801. Epub 2014 Jul 16.

Authors

M S Safronova¹, V A Dzuba², V V Flambaum², U I Safronova³, S G Porsev⁴, M G Kozlov⁵

Affiliations

¹ University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA and Joint Quantum Institute, NIST and the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20899, USA.
² The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia.
³ University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557, USA and University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA.
⁴ University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA and Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina 188300, Russia.
⁵ Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina 188300, Russia and St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University "LETI," St. Petersburg 197376, Russia.

PMID: 25083627
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.030801

Abstract

We propose 10 highly charged ions as candidates for the development of next generation atomic clocks, quantum information, and search for α variation. They have long-lived metastable states with transition wavelengths to the ground state between 170-3000 nm, relatively simple electronic structure, stable isotopes, and high sensitivity to α variation (e.g., Sm(14+), Pr(10+), Sm(13+), Nd(10+)). We predict their properties crucial for the experimental exploration and highlight particularly attractive systems for these applications.