English

Characterization of rf field-induced a.c. Zeeman shift in multi-level highly charged ions

Atomic Physics 2026-04-13 v1

Abstract

Characterization of the trap rf induced a.c. Zeeman shift is essential for achieving high accuracy in optical ion clocks. In this work, we demonstrate the experimental characterization of this shift using highly charged Ca14+\mathrm{Ca}^{14+}. The transverse component of the a.c. magnetic field is measured using the Autler-Townes splitting of the equally-spaced Zeeman components of the 3P1^{3}\mathrm{P}_1 when the Zeeman splitting is close to resonance with the trap rf drive frequency. We observe the resulting modulation by performing quantum logic spectroscopy using the co-trapped Be+\mathrm{Be}^{+}. The longitudinal component is measured from probing the Be+\mathrm{Be}^{+} magnetic field-insensitive hyperfine transition F=2,mF=0F=1,mF=0|F=2,m_F=0 \rangle \rightarrow | F=1,m_F=0 \rangle. We confirm the small influence of the a.c. Zeeman shift in highly charged ions. The employed techniques can easily be transferred to other multi-level atomic systems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.09481,
  title  = {Characterization of rf field-induced a.c. Zeeman shift in multi-level highly charged ions},
  author = {Shuying Chen and Lukas J. Spieß and Alexander Wilzewski and Malte Wehrheim and José R. Crespo López-Urrutia and Piet O. Schmidt},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.09481},
  year   = {2026}
}