Abstract

Ion traps are of current interest for high precision measurements of atomic splitting frequencies and they are widely discussed as new frequency standards [1, 2]. Recently they have also successfully been used to perform quantum jump experiments [3, 4]. The ion storage technique can successfully be applied to observe ions for long periods without perturbations and thus to eliminate transit time broadening and collisional effects. We were interested to make high resolution level splitting measurements with Yb ions which are proposed as a proper candidate in ion trap frequency standards [1]. When resonantly exciting the ions to the 6p²P_1/2-state we measured a rapidly decreasing fluorescence signal. In order to explain this phenomenon we have investigated the excitation scheme of Yb⁺ in more detail (see Fig. 1).

© 1988 Optical Society of America