PSAS 2012
International Conference on Precision Physics
of Simple Atomic Systems 2012
Eltville, Germany -
Information

Title:	Mr.
Family Name:	Windberger
First Name:	Alexander
Gender:	male
E-Mail:	alexander.windbergermpi-hd.mpg.de
Affiliation for Badge:	Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics
Institute:	Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics
Address (Street):	Saupfercheckweg 1
Postal Code, City:	69117, Heidelberg
Country:	Germany
Phone:
Fax:
Arrival Date:	June 10
Departure Date:	June 15
Excursion with Conference Dinner:	Not selected
Payment:	Bank transfer to GSI
Title:	Towards precision spectroscopy of sympathetically cooled highly charged ions in a Paul trap
Abstract:	Forbidden optical transitions in highly charged ions (HCIs) open up a novel approach to metrology and fundamental physics. Fine structure transitions and hyperfine transitions are shifted into the optical range and relativistic, quantum electrodynamic and nuclear size effects strongly scale with the ionic charge state. Due to their strong nuclear Coulomb field, HCIs show an extremely low polarizability and therefore, they are insensitive to external perturbing fields. The highest sensitivity for variation of the fine structure constant ever predicted for a stable atomic system is found in Ir17+ [1]. This transition at 283(25)nm has a more than five times higher sensitivity to alpha variation than the one used in Hg+ clocks. The laboratory limit on alpha variation is set by comparing Hg+ and Al+ clocks [2]. We will perform spectroscopy on Ir ions inside an EBIT in order to provide a benchmark for theory. HCIs will be extracted from an EBIT and transferred into a cryogenic (4K) Paul trap (CryPTEx) built at the MPIK. The excellent vacuum conditions inside CryPTEx allow to store HCIs sufficiently long such that they can be sympathetically cooled with laser cooled Be+ ions. By these means the temperature of the HCIs will decrease by nine orders of magnitude, from the MK regime inside the EBIT down to the mK range in CryPTEx. Highly forbidden transitions can then be investigated by implementing quantum logic spectroscopy [3]. [1] J. C. Berengut et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106 (2011) [2] T. Rosenband et al., Science 319 (2008) [3] P. O. Schmidt et al., Science 309 (2005)

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