Sub-hertz optical transitions in excited Yb$^+$

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Hauptverfasser: McMillin, Patrick, Farhat, Hassan, Liu, William, Campbell, Wesley C.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author McMillin, Patrick
Farhat, Hassan
Liu, William
Campbell, Wesley C.
author_facet McMillin, Patrick
Farhat, Hassan
Liu, William
Campbell, Wesley C.
contents We present the observation of three semi-forbidden transitions in singly-ionized ytterbium from the metastable $^{2}\mathrm{F}^o_{7/2}$ state. Owing to the long lifetimes of both the upper and lower states involved, these transitions are narrow and complement those already frequently used in this atom for quantum information and searches for new physics. We report the absolute frequencies of these electric quadrupole transitions, their isotope shifts, hyperfine structure, and measurements of the quadrupole transition moments. We find that the spontaneous lifetimes of these excited states are limited by slow magnetic dipole emission to lower-lying, odd-parity states, the lowest of which is accessible by laser excitation from ${}^2\mathrm{F}_{7/2}^o$ and is an attractive candidate for hosting a long-lived qubit.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_07352
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Sub-hertz optical transitions in excited Yb$^+$
McMillin, Patrick
Farhat, Hassan
Liu, William
Campbell, Wesley C.
Atomic Physics
We present the observation of three semi-forbidden transitions in singly-ionized ytterbium from the metastable $^{2}\mathrm{F}^o_{7/2}$ state. Owing to the long lifetimes of both the upper and lower states involved, these transitions are narrow and complement those already frequently used in this atom for quantum information and searches for new physics. We report the absolute frequencies of these electric quadrupole transitions, their isotope shifts, hyperfine structure, and measurements of the quadrupole transition moments. We find that the spontaneous lifetimes of these excited states are limited by slow magnetic dipole emission to lower-lying, odd-parity states, the lowest of which is accessible by laser excitation from ${}^2\mathrm{F}_{7/2}^o$ and is an attractive candidate for hosting a long-lived qubit.
title Sub-hertz optical transitions in excited Yb$^+$
topic Atomic Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.07352