Related papers: Precision spectroscopy of helium in a magic wavele…
Ultracold dilute gases provide ideal settings for measurements of atomic structure. Helium has an internal structure sufficiently simple to permit highly accurate predictions of its resonances and transition rates. Precise laser…
High-precision laser spectroscopy of atomic hydrogen has led to an impressive accuracy in tests of bound-state quantum electrodynamics (QED). At the current level of accuracy many systematics have to be studied very carefully and only…
High precision spectroscopy on the $2 \ ^3 S \rightarrow 2 \ ^1 S$ transition is possible in ultracold optically trapped helium but the accuracy is limited by the ac-Stark shift induced by the optical dipole trap. To overcome this problem,…
Precision spectroscopy of simple atomic systems has refined our understanding of the fundamental laws of quantum physics. In particular, helium spectroscopy has played a crucial role in describing two-electron interactions, determining the…
Quantum electrodynamics is the first successful and still the most successful quantum field theory. Simple atoms, being essentially QED systems, allow highly accurate theoretical predictions. Because of their simple spectra, such atoms have…
We analyze several possibilities for precisely measuring electronic transitions in atomic helium by the direct use of phase-stabilized femtosecond frequency combs. Because the comb is self-calibrating and can be shifted into the ultraviolet…
Precision spectroscopy of atomic hydrogen is an important way to test bound-state quantum electrodynamics (QED), one of the building blocks of the Standard Model. In its simplest form, such a test consists of the comparison of a measured…
High-precision spectroscopy of simple atomic systems can be used to advance the theory of atomic energy levels but can also serve as a sensitive probe of nuclear charge radii. For this last purpose, we report an improved measurement of the…
The workhorse of atomic physics, quantum electrodynamics, is one of the best-tested theories in physics. However recent discrepancies have shed doubt on its accuracy for complex atomic systems. To facilitate the development of the theory…
We present the first measurement for helium atoms of the tune-out wavelength at which the atomic polarizability vanishes. We utilise a novel, highly sensitive technique for precisely measuring the effect of variations in the trapping…
Precision metrology and quantum measurement often demand matter be prepared in well defined quantum states for both internal and external degrees of freedom. Laser-cooled neutral atoms localized in a deeply confining optical potential…
Despite quantum electrodynamics (QED) being one of the most stringently tested theories underpinning modern physics, recent precision atomic spectroscopy measurements have uncovered several small discrepancies between experiment and theory.…
Highly charged ions (HCIs) have drawn significant interest in quantum metrology and in search for new physics. Among these, Ni12+ is considered as one of the most promising candidates for the next generation of HCI optical clocks, due to…
We report the realization of a BEC of metastable helium-4 atoms (4He*) in an all optical potential. Up to 10^5 spin polarized 4He* atoms are condensed in an optical dipole trap formed from a single, focused, vertically propagating far…
We report on the realization of Bose-Einstein condensation of metastable helium-4. After exciting helium to its metastable state in a novel pulse-tube cryostat source, the atomic beam is collimated and slowed. We then trap several 10^8…
We present the detection of the highly forbidden $2^{3\!}S_1 \rightarrow 3^{3\!}S_1$ atomic transition in helium, the weakest transition observed in any neutral atom. Our measurements of the transition frequency, upper state lifetime, and…
Recent progress in laser and x-ray spectroscopy of muonic atoms offers promising long-term possibilities at the intersection of atomic, nuclear and particle physics. In muonic hydrogen, laser spectroscopy measurements will determine the…
Precision spectroscopy of the hydrogen molecule is a test ground of quantum electrodynamics (QED), and may serve for determination of fundamental constants. Using a comb-locked cavity ring-down spectrometer, for the first time, we observed…
Quantum electrodynamics (QED), the first relativistic quantum field theory, describes light-matter interactions at a fundamental level and is one of the pillars of the Standard Model (SM). Through the extraordinary precision of QED, the SM…
Phase transitions, as the condensation of a gas to a liquid, are often revealed by a discontinuous behavior of thermodynamic quantities. For liquid Helium, for example, a divergence of the specific heat signals the transition from the…