Erlangen 2022 – scientific programme
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MS: Fachverband Massenspektrometrie
MS 3: Studies of Nuclear Metastable States
MS 3.5: Talk
Tuesday, March 15, 2022, 11:50–12:05, MS-H9
A cryogenic Paul trap setup for the determination of the ionic radiative lifetime of 229mTh3+ — •Daniel Moritz1, K. Scharl1, B. Seiferle1, F. Zacherl1, T. Dickel2,3, F. Greiner2,3, W. Plass2,3, L. von der Wense1,4, T. Leopold5,6, P. Micke5,7, J. Crespo López-Urrutia5, P.O. Schmidt6, and P.G. Thirolf1 — 1Ludwig Maximilians Universität München — 2Justus Liebig Universität Gießen — 3GSI Darmstadt — 4JILA, University of Colorado, USA — 5Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg — 6PTB Braunschweig — 7CERN, Genf, Schweiz
The exceptionally low energy of the isomeric first excited nuclear state of 229Th, which has recently been constrained to 8.28±0.17 eV (i.e. λ=149.7±3.1 nm)[1], allows for direct laser excitation with current technology. This offers the unique opportunity to develop a nuclear clock capable of competing or even outperforming existing atomic clocks. One of the next steps towards the realization of such a clock is the determination of the 229Th isomer’s ionic lifetime (theoretically expected to range between 103 − 104 seconds) via hyperfine spectroscopy. In order to achieve the required long ion storage time, a cryogenic Paul-trap with a corresponding mass-selective ion guide system has been set up at LMU Munich. The talk will present this new experimental platform. This work was supported by DFG (Th956/3-2) as well as by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement 6674732 "nuClock" and the ERC Synergy Grant "ThoriumNuclearClock".
[1] B. Seiferle et al., Nature 573, 243 (2019).