English

Forbidden Transitions in a Magneto-Optical Trap

Atomic Physics 2009-11-10 v1

Abstract

We report the first observation of a non-dipole transition in an ultra-cold atomic vapor. We excite the 3P-4P electric quadrupole (E2) transition in 23^{23}Na confined in a Magneto-Optical Trap(MOT), and demonstrate its application to high-resolution spectroscopy by making the first measurement of the hyperfine structure of the 4P1/2_{1/2} level and extracting the magnetic dipole constant A == 30.6 ±\pm 0.1 MHz. We use cw OODR (Optical-Optical Double Resonance) accompanied by photoinization to probe the transition.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0304031,
  title  = {Forbidden Transitions in a Magneto-Optical Trap},
  author = {M. Bhattacharya and C. Haimberger and N. P. Bigelow},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0304031},
  year   = {2009}
}