Two-photon polarizability of Ba$^+$ ion: Control of spin-mixing process in an ultracold $^{137}$Ba$^+$--$^{87}$Rb mixture

Abstract

Ionic clocks exhibit as the most promising candidates for the frequency standards. Recent investigations show the profound advantages of interrogating two laser beams with different frequencies in developing the frequency standards. Here we present a scheme of a two-photon mechanism to calculate the dynamic polarizabilities for the clock states, 6$^2$S$_{\frac{1}{2}}$ and 5$^2$D$_{\frac{3}{2}, \frac{5}{2}}$, of Ba$^+$ by employing relativistic coupled-cluster method. We illustrate the Stark-shift cancellation between these clock states at the two-photon magic wavelengths. These magic wavelengths can be essential inputs to achieve better accuracy in the ionic clock experiments. We also calculate the magic wavelengths under the single-photon interaction to serve as the reference and for a comparative study. The calculated single- and two-photon magic wavelengths lie in the optical region and thus are significant for future state-of-the-art experiments. Moreover, as an application of the two-photon polarizabilities, we investigate the impact of these polarizabilities on the spin-mixing processes, $|0,0\rangle$ $\leftrightarrow$ $|+1,-1\rangle$ and $|0,0\rangle$ $\leftrightarrow$ $|-1,+1\rangle$, of an ultra-cold spin-1 mixture of the $^{137}$Ba$^+$ and $^{87}$Rb atoms. We determine the protocols of selecting these spin-mixing oscillations by changing the strength of an externally applied magnetic field and the frequencies of the interrogating laser beams.