Precise lifetime determination of the metastable 3d²D_5/2 level in Ca⁺ by "electron shelving"

Institut für Physik, University of Mainz - D-55099 Mainz, Germany

Received: 12 September 1995
Accepted: 15 January 1996

Abstract

ions confined as a cloud in a Paul trap were excited and cooled by radiation from two lasers, tuned to the and transitions. The strong fluorescence of these lines disappears when we excite the ions simultaneously by a third laser on the line because of population trapping in the metastable state, into which the level decays. From the time dependence of the fluorescence after blocking the third laser we determined the lifetime of the level. Our result of ms improves earlier results and agrees with the value recently computed by Liaw using the Brueckner approximation.