Parity-nonconserving optical rotation on the 6s6p³P₀→6s6p¹P₁ transition in atomic ytterbium

A new scheme to measure parity-nonconserving effects in atomic ytterbium is proposed. This method entails measuring parity-nonconserving optical rotation on the 1.28 μm 6s6p ³P₀→6s6p¹P₁ transition, for which optical rotation per unit absorption length is predicted to be an order of magnitude larger than that for transitions experimentally studied in thallium, lead, and bismuth. In the proposed experiment using a vapor cell filled with buffer gas, the lifetime of the lower metastable 6s6p ³P₀ state is limited by collisional de-excitation. Atoms are excited to the lower metastable state by, e.g., short (∼10 ns) near-resonant light pulses and spurious optical rotation is subtracted on a pulse by pulse basis. The potential sensitivity of this technique may enable precise measurements of electroweak parameters.