Abstract

As “warmup” for near-future atomic frequency standard investigations using trapped Sr, it has seemed prudent to get experience with an already-known quantum system, such as the two-level resonance system in Na. This project has further interest in view of the 1% discrepancy between the best previous experimental lifetime[1] and corresponding theoretical results[2]. High precision measurement of parity non-conservation effects in Cs will rely on related theory to connect observations with the fundamental weak-current couplings: consequently any mystery in something as “simple” as atomic lifetimes raises alarms. In fact such disagreements for Li have been resolved by new experiments[3] and for Na by the present work, while the cases for Rb and Cs were already in order.

© 1996 Optical Society of America