Search

We conducted measurement and calculation to resolve the long-standing large discrepancy in the metastable state lifetime for the 88Sr atom between theoretical and experimental results. The present lifetime τ = 830 − 240 + 600 s, measured using the magneto-optical trap as a photon amplifier to detect the weak decay events, is approximately 60% larger than the previous experimental value τ = 520 − 140 + 310 s. By considering the electron correlation effects in the framework of the multiconfiguration Dirac–Hartree–Fock theory, we obtained a theoretical lifetime of 1079(54) s, which lies in the range of measurements with error bars. Furthermore, we considered the higher-order electron correlation and Breit interaction to control the uncertainty of the theoretical calculation. The significant improvement in the agreement between calculations and measurements is attributed to the updated blackbody radiation-induced decay rate.

We present an experimental determination on the Lande g-factors for the 5s2 1S0 and 5s5p 3 P0 states in ultra-cold atomic systems, which is important for evaluating the Zeeman shift of the clock transition in the 87Sr optical lattice clock. The Zeeman shift of the 5s5p 3P0–5s2 1S0 forbidden transition is measured with the π-polarized and σ±-polarized interrogations at different magnetic field strengths. Moreover, in the g-factor measurement with the σ±-transition spectra, it is unnecessary to calibrate the external magnetic field. By this means, the ground state 5s2 1S0 g-factor for the 87Sr atom is −1.306(52)×10−4, which is the first experimental determination to the best of our knowledge, and the result matches very well with the theoretical estimation. The differential g-factor δg between the 5s5p 3P0 state and the 5s2 1S0 state of the 87Sr atoms is measured in the experiment as well, which are −7.67(36) × 10−5 with π-transition spectra and −7.72(43) × 10−5 with σ±-transition spectra, in good agreement with the previous report [Phys. Rev. A 76 (2007) 022510]. This work can also be used for determining the differential g-factor of the clock states for the optical clocks based on other atoms.