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Radiative decay of the ${}^{229 m}{Th}$ nuclear clock isomer in different host materials

S. V. Pineda ^1,*, P. Chhetri ^1,2,†, S. Bara ¹, Y. Elskens ¹, S. Casci ¹, A. N. Alexandrova ³, M. Au ⁴, M. Athanasakis-Kaklamanakis ^1,5,6, M. Bartokos ⁷ et al.

K. Beeks ⁸, C. Bernerd^1,4, A. Claessens ¹, K. Chrysalidis ⁴, T. E. Cocolios ¹, J. G. Correia⁹, H. De Witte ¹, R. Elwell ¹⁰, R. Ferrer¹, R. Heinke ⁴, E. R. Hudson ¹⁰, F. Ivandikov¹, Yu. Kudryavtsev ¹, U. Köster ¹¹, S. Kraemer^1,12, M. Laatiaoui ², R. Lica ¹³, C. Merckling ¹⁴, I. Morawetz ⁷, H. W. T. Morgan ³, D. Moritz¹², L. M. C. Pereira ¹⁵, S. Raeder ¹⁶, S. Rothe ⁴, F. Schaden ⁷, K. Scharl ¹², T. Schumm ⁷, S. Stegemann ⁴, J. Terhune ¹⁰, P. G. Thirolf ¹², S. M. Tunhuma ¹⁵, P. Van Den Bergh¹, P. Van Duppen ¹, A. Vantomme ¹⁵, U. Wahl ⁹, and Z. Yue¹⁷

¹KU Leuven, Instituut voor Kern- en Stralingsfysica, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
²Department Chemie–Standort TRIGA, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, D-55099 Mainz, Germany
³Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
⁴CERN SY-STI, Geneva, 1211, Switzerland
⁵CERN, Experimental Physics Department, CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
⁶Blackett Laboratory, Centre for Cold Matter, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ London, United Kingdom
⁷Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Atominstitut, TU Wien, 1020 Vienna, Austria
⁸LUMES, Institute of Physics, EPFL, Lausanne CH-1015, Switzerland
⁹Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 2695-066 Bobadela LRS, Portugal
¹⁰Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
¹¹Institut Laue Langevin, 38042 Grenoble, France
¹²Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 85748 Garching, Germany
¹³Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
¹⁴Imec, Leuven B-3001, Belgium
¹⁵KU Leuven, Quantum Solid State Physics, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
¹⁶GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, D-64291 Darmstadt, Germany
¹⁷School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom

^*Contact author: skyy.pineda@kuleuven.be
^†Contact author: pchhetri@uni-mainz.de

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 013052 – Published 15 January, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.013052

Abstract

A comparative vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy study conducted at ISOLDE-CERN of the radiative decay of the ${}^{229 m}{Th}$ nuclear clock isomer embedded in different host materials is reported. The ratio of the number of radiative decay photons and the number of ${}^{229 m}{Th}$ embedded are determined for single crystalline ${CaF}_{2}, {MgF}_{2}, {LiSrAlF}_{6}$ , AlN, and amorphous ${SiO}_{2}$ . For the latter two materials, no radiative decay signal was observed and an upper limit of the ratio is reported. The radiative decay wavelength was determined in ${LiSrAlF}_{6}$ and ${CaF}_{2}$ , reducing its uncertainty by a factor of 2.5 relative to our previous measurement. This value is in agreement with the recently reported improved values from laser excitation.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 013052– Published 15 January, 2025

Vol. 7, Iss. 1 — January - March 2025

Received 20 August 2024
Accepted 17 November 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.013052

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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Radiative decay of the ${}^{229 m}{Th}$ nuclear clock isomer in different host materials

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Radiative decay of the Th229m nuclear clock isomer in different host materials

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References (55)

Radiative decay of the ${}^{229 m}{Th}$ nuclear clock isomer in different host materials