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Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 183004 (2008) [4 pages]

Doppler-Free Spectroscopy of the 1S0-3P0 Optical Clock Transition in Laser-Cooled Fermionic Isotopes of Neutral Mercury

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M. Petersen, R. Chicireanu, S. T. Dawkins, D. V. Magalhães*, C. Mandache†, Y. Le Coq, A. Clairon, and S. Bize
LNE-SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, 75014 Paris, France

Received 17 July 2008; published 29 October 2008

We report direct laser spectroscopy of the 1S0-3P0 transition at 265.6 nm in fermionic isotopes of neutral mercury in a magneto-optical trap. Measurements of the frequency against the LNE-SYRTE primary reference using an optical frequency comb yield 1 128 575 290 808.4±5.6  kHz in 199Hg and 1 128 569 561 139.6±5.3  kHz in 201Hg. The uncertainty, allowed by the observation of the Doppler-free recoil doublet, is 4 orders of magnitude lower than previous indirect determinations. Mercury is a promising candidate for future optical lattice clocks due to its low sensitivity to blackbody radiation.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.183004
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.183004
PACS:
32.30.Jc, 06.30.Ft, 37.10.−x, 42.62.Fi

*Also at Instituto de Física de São Carlos, USP-PO Box 369, 13560-970, São Carlos, SP, Brazil.

†Also at National Institute for Laser Physics, Plasmas and Radiation, Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion Laboratory, Bucharest, Magurele, PO Box MG 7, Romania.

 
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