Publication Date:
2021-09-01
Description:
Abstract The direct access to atomic transitions between close by quantum states employing standard spectroscopic methods is often limited by the size of the necessary radio-frequency cavities. Here we report on a new tool for fundamental spectroscopy measurements that can overcome this shortcoming. For this, a Sona transition unit was used, i.e., two opposed solenoidal coils that provide an oscillating field in the rest frame of the through-going atomic beam. In this way, we were able to control the induced photon energy down to 10 neV or $$f sim $$ f ∼ MHz. The tuneable parameter is the velocity of the atomic beam. For illustration of the method, we report a measurement of the hyperfine splitting energies between the substates with $$F=1$$ F = 1 and $$m_F = -1, 0, +1$$ m F = - 1 , 0 , + 1 of $$2S_{1/2}$$ 2 S 1 / 2 metastable hydrogen atoms as function of a magnetic field. Graphic Abstract
Print ISSN:
1434-6060
Electronic ISSN:
1434-6079
Topics:
Physics
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