Turquoise Magic Wavelength of the ${}^{87}$Sr Clock Transition
Abstract
Optical lattice clocks of fermionic strontium offer a versatile platform for probing fundamental physics and developing quantum technologies. The bivalent electronic structure of strontium gives rise to a doubly-forbidden atomic transition that is accessible due to hyperfine mixing in fermionic strontium-87, thus resulting in a sub-millihertz natural linewidth. Currently, the most accurate optical lattice clocks operate on this narrow transition by tightly trapping strontium-87 atoms in a {\em magic} optical lattice at 813~nm. {\em Magic} wavelengths occur where the Stark shifts of both the ground and excited states are equivalent, thus eliminating any position and intensity-dependent broadening of the corresponding transition. Theoretical calculations of the electronic structure of strontium-87 have also predicted another {\em magic} wavelength of the clock transition at 497.01(57)~nm. In this work, we experimentally measure the novel {\em magic} wavelength to be ~nm. Compared to the 813~nm {\em magic} wavelength, 497~nm is closer to the strong 461~nm dipolar transition of strontium, resulting in larger atomic polarizability by an order of magnitude, providing deeper traps with less optical power. The proximity to the 461~transition also leads to an enhanced sensitivity of 334(10)~Hz/(nm\,) at the {\em magic} wavelength.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2506.18958,
title = {Turquoise Magic Wavelength of the ${}^{87}$Sr Clock Transition},
author = {G. Kestler and R. J. Sedlik and E. C. Trapp and M. S. Safronova and J. T. Barreiro},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.18958},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
7 pages, 6 figures