Laser spectroscopy on forbidden transitions in trapped highly charged Ar(13+) ions

Phys Rev Lett. 2011 Sep 30;107(14):143002. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.143002. Epub 2011 Sep 27.

Abstract

We demonstrate resonant fluorescence laser spectroscopy in highly charged ions (HCI) stored in an electron beam ion trap by investigating the dipole-forbidden 1s(2)2s(2)2p (2)P(3/2)-(2)P(1/2) transition in boronlike Ar(13+) ions. Forced evaporative cooling yielded a high resolving power, resulting in an accurate wavelength determination to λ=441.255 68(26) nm. By applying stronger cooling and two-photon excitation, new optical frequency standards based upon ultrastable transitions in such HCI could be realized in the future, e.g., for the search of time variations of the fine-structure constant.