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Hyperfine spectroscopy of optical-cycling transitions in singly ionized thulium

Atomic Physics 2026-04-07 v2 Quantum Physics

Abstract

We present a spectroscopic investigation of 169Tm+^{169}\mathrm{Tm}^+ that provides two key foundations for its use as a platform for advanced quantum applications. First, we establish the complete spectroscopic road map for optical cycling (including laser cooling) by performing high-resolution spectroscopy on 169Tm+^{169}\mathrm{Tm}^+ ions in an ion trap. We characterize the primary 313nm313\,\mathrm{nm} and complementary 448/453nm448/453\,\mathrm{nm} cycling transitions, identify the essential near-infrared repumping frequencies, and determine the magnetic-dipole hyperfine AA constants for all relevant levels. Second, we report a detailed characterization of a metastable state as a candidate for hosting a robust qubit, performing lifetime measurements and Zeeman-resolved microwave hyperfine spectroscopy with kHz\mathrm{kHz} precision.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.14885,
  title  = {Hyperfine spectroscopy of optical-cycling transitions in singly ionized thulium},
  author = {Patrick Müller and Andrei Tretiakov and Amanda Younes and Nicole Halawani and Wesley C. Campbell and Paul Hamilton},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.14885},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Published in Scientific Reports, 11 pages, 5 figures, 1 table