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Phys. Rev. A 72, 063409 (2005) [11 pages]

Collisional perturbation of radio-frequency E1 transitions in an atomic beam of dysprosium

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A. Cingöz1,*, A. -T. Nguyen1,2, D. Budker1,3,†, S. K. Lamoreaux2, Alain Lapierre1, and J. R. Torgerson2
1Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720-7300, USA
2University of California, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Physics Division, P-23, MS-H803, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
3Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

Received 15 August 2005; published 21 December 2005

We have studied collisional perturbations of radio-frequency (rf) electric-dipole (E1) transitions between the nearly degenerate opposite-parity levels in atomic dysprosium (Dy) in the presence of 10 to 80 μTorr of H2, N2, He, Ar, Ne, Kr, and Xe. Collisional broadening and shift of the resonance, as well as the attenuation of the signal amplitude are observed to be proportional to the foreign-gas density with the exception of H2 and Ne, for which no shifts were observed. Corresponding rates and cross sections are presented. In addition, rates and cross sections for O2 are extracted from measurements using air as foreign gas. The primary motivation for this study is the need for accurate determination of the shift rates, which are needed in a laboratory search for the temporal variation of the fine-structure constant [ A. T. Nguyen, D. Budker, S. K. Lamoreaux and J. R. Torgerson Phys. Rev. A 69 22105 (2004)].

© 2005 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.72.063409
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.72.063409
PACS:
32.70.Jz, 32.30.Bv, 06.20.Jr

*Electronic address: acingoz@berkeley.edu

†Electronic address: budker@berkeley.edu

 
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