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Abstract The laser-accessible nuclear transition in the thorium-229 isotope has been identified as a candidate for realizing an optical nuclear clock1 that might outperform current optical clocks based on electron-shell transitions in atoms or ions2. It is expected to be more robust against external perturbations3,4 and to provide enhanced sensitivity in clock-based tests of the fundamental principles of physics5,6.
Abstract The low-energy nuclear transition in thorium-229 (Th-229) has been excited in thorium-doped crystals with laser light1,2,3, opening the path towards a highly stable and robust solid-state optical nuclear clock4. The required laser radiation at 148-nm wavelength has so far been produced using pulsed laser systems, in which only a small fraction of the incident photons has been resonant with the narrow nuclear transition.
Sympathetic cooling of Th3+ ions is demonstrated in an experiment where Th229 and Th230 are extracted from uranium recoil-ion sources and are confined in a linear Paul trap together with laser-cooled Sr+88 ions. Because of their similar charge-to-mass ratios the ions are closely coupled and arrange themselves into two-species Coulomb crystals containing up to a few tens of Th3+ ions.
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