Boon Leng Chuah

We perform precision measurements on the 5D$_{5/2}$ manifold hyperfine intervals of a single trapped ion, $^{137}$Ba$^+$. RF spectroscopy is used to measure the hyperfine intervals to an accuracy of a few Hz. Our results provide a three orders of magnitude improvement in accuracy over previous work and also provide a 10-fold improvement in the value of $g_J$ for this level. These results complement our previous work on the 5D$_{3/2}$ manifold of $^{137}$Ba$^+$, providing an independent measurement of the nuclear octupole, and a consistency check on atomic structure calculations.

We demonstrate minimization of ion micromotion in a linear Paul trap with the use of a high finesse cavity. The excess ion micromotion projected along the optical cavity axis or along the laser propagation direction manifests itself as sideband peaks around the carrier in the ion-cavity emission spectrum. By minimizing the sideband height in the emission spectrum, we are able to reduce the micromotion amplitude to approximately the spread of the ground state wave function. This method is useful for cavity QED experiments as it allows for efficient 3-D micromotion compensation despite optical access limitations imposed by the cavity mirrors. We also show that sub-nanometer micromotion compensation is possible with our current system.

We present precision measurements of the hyperfine intervals in the 5D3/2 manifold of a single trapped Barium ion, 137 Ba+ . Measurements of the hyperfine intervals are made between mF = 0 sublevels over a range of magnetic fields allowing us to interpolate to the zero field values with an accuracy below a few Hz, an improvement on previous measurements by three orders of magnitude. Our results, in conjunction with theoretical calculations, provide a 30-fold reduction in the uncertainty of the magnetic dipole (A) and electric quadrupole (B) hyperfine constants. In addition, we obtain the magnetic octupole constant (C) with an accuracy below 0.1 Hz. This gives a subsequent determination of the nuclear magnetic octupole moment, Ω, with an uncertainty of 1% limited almost completely by the accuracy of theoretical calculations. This constitutes the first observation of the octupole moment in 137 Ba+ and the most accurately determined octupole moment to date.