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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 13: Nuclear Clocks
Q 13.1: Talk
Monday, March 2, 2026, 17:00–17:15, P 11
Setup for Laser Excitation of the 229Th Nucleus in a Cryogenic Environment — •Florian Zacherl1, Lennart Guth2, Jan-Hendrik Oelmann2, Anant Agarwal2, Tobias Heldt2, Keerthan Subramanian1, Srinivasa Pradeep Arasada1, Valerii Andriushkov3, 4, Ke Zhang1, Yumiao Wang1, 5, Darius Fenner1, José R. Crespo López-Urrutia2, Christoph E. Düllmann1, 3, 4, Dmitry Budker1, 3, 4, 6, Thorsten Schumm7, Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler1, and Lars von der Wense1 — 1Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany — 2Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany — 3Helmholtz Institute Mainz, Germany — 4GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt, Germany — 5Fudan University, Shanghai, China — 6University of California, Berkeley, USA — 7Vienna University of Technology, Austria
The low isomeric energy level of only 8.4 eV in 229Th places the transition wavelength in the vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) and therefore provides the unique opportunity to excite it with optical lasers. The described setup aims to excite the nuclei of Th4+ ions in a Th:CaF2 crystal at around 148 nm with a VUV frequency comb. The crystal is placed and excited in a He cryogenic environment to probe for temperature dependent transition frequency shifts as well as variations in decay time at very low temperatures down to 4 K.
This work is supported by the BMFTR Quantum Futur II Grant Project NuQuant (FKZ 13N16295A) and DFG Project TACTICa (grant agreement no.495729045).
Keywords: Thorium; Nuclear Clock; Solid state; Crystal; Cryogenic