Measurement of the branching fractions and lifetime of the 5D(5/2) level of Ba+

作者：Auchter Carolyn; Noel Thomas W^*; Hoffman Matthew R; Williams Spencer R; Blinov Boris B

来源：Physical Review A, 2014, 90(6): 060501.

DOI：10.1103/PhysRevA.90.060501

We present a measurement of the branching fractions for decay from the long-lived 5D(5/2) level in Ba-138(+). The branching fraction for decay into the 6S(1/2) ground state was found to be 0.846(25)(stat)(4)(sys). We also report an improved measurement of the 5D(5/2) lifetime, tau(5D5/2) = 31.2(0.9) s. Together these measurements provide an experimental determination of transition rates for decay out of the 5D(5/2) level. The low (< 7 x 10(-12) Torr) pressure in the ion trap in which these measurements were made simplified data acquisition and analysis. Comparison of the experimental results with theoretical predictions of the transition rates shows good agreement.

• 出版日期2014-12-17