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arXiv · 2005.13918

Studies of thorium and ytterbium ion trap loading from laser ablation for gravity monitoring with nuclear clocks

Marcin Piotrowski·Jordan Scarabel·Mirko Lobino·Erik Streed·Stephen Gensemer
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Abstract

Compact and robust ion traps for thorium are enabling technology for the next generation of atomic clocks based on a low-energy isomeric transition in the thorium-229 nucleus. We aim at a laser ablation loading of single triply ionized thorium in a radio-frequency electromagnetic linear Paul trap. Detection of ions is based on a modified mass spectrometer and a channeltron with single-ion sensitivity. In this study, we successfully created and detected 232Th+ and 232Th2+ ions from plasma plumes, studied their yield evolution, and compared the loading to a quadrupole ion trap with Yb. We explore the feasibility of laser ablation loading for future low-cost 229Th3+ trapping. The thorium ablation yield shows a strong depletion, suggesting that we have ablated oxide layers from the surface and the ions were a result of the plasma plume evolution and collisions. Our results are in good agreement with similar experiments for other elements and their oxides.

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Marcin Piotrowski, Jordan Scarabel, Mirko Lobino, Erik Streed, Stephen Gensemer. 2020-05-28. Studies of thorium and ytterbium ion trap loading from laser ablation for gravity monitoring with nuclear clocks. https://doi.org/10.1364/osac.396290

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