Laser spectroscopy of triply charged 229Th isomer for a nuclear clock

Atsushi Yamaguchi (), Yudai Shigekawa, Hiromitsu Haba, Hidetoshi Kikunaga, Kenji Shirasaki, Michiharu Wada and Hidetoshi Katori
Additional contact information
Atsushi Yamaguchi: RIKEN
Yudai Shigekawa: RIKEN
Hiromitsu Haba: RIKEN
Hidetoshi Kikunaga: Tohoku University
Kenji Shirasaki: Tohoku University
Michiharu Wada: KEK Wako Nuclear Science Center
Hidetoshi Katori: RIKEN

Nature, 2024, vol. 629, issue 8010, 62-66

Abstract: Abstract Thorium-229 (229Th) possesses an optical nuclear transition between the ground state (229gTh) and low-lying isomer (229mTh). A nuclear clock based on this nuclear-transition frequency is expected to surpass existing atomic clocks owing to its insusceptibility to surrounding fields1–5. In contrast to other charge states, triply charged 229Th (229Th3+) is the most suitable for highly accurate nuclear clocks because it has closed electronic transitions that enable laser cooling, laser-induced fluorescence detection and state preparation of ions1,6–8. Although laser spectroscopic studies of 229Th3+ in the nuclear ground state have been performed8, properties of 229mTh3+, including its nuclear decay lifetime that is essential to specify the intrinsic linewidth of the nuclear-clock transition, remain unknown. Here we report the trapping of 229mTh3+ continuously supplied by a 233U source and the determination of nuclear decay half-life of the isolated 229mTh3+ to be $${{\rm{1,400}}}_{-300}^{+600}\,{\rm{s}}$$ 1,400 − 300 + 600 s through nuclear-state-selective laser spectroscopy. Furthermore, by determining the hyperfine constants of 229mTh3+, we reduced the uncertainty of the sensitivity of the 229Th nuclear clock to variations in the fine-structure constant by a factor of four. These results offer key parameters for the 229Th3+ nuclear clock and its applications in the search for new physics.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07296-1

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