We report the first experimental determination of the 4s 2 S 1/2 ↔ 3d 2 D 5/2 quadrupole transition matrix element in 40 Ca + by measuring the branching ratio of the 3d 2 D 5/2 state decaying into the ground state 4s 2 S 1/2 and the lifetime of the 3d 2 D 5/2 state, using a technique of highly synchronized measurement sequence for laser control and highly efficient quantum state detection for quantum jumps. The measured branching ratio and improved lifetime are, respectively, 0.9992(80) and 1.1652(46) s, which yield the value of the quadrupole transition matrix element (in absolute value) 9.737(43) ea 2 0 with the uncertainty at the level of 0.44%. The measured quadrupole transition matrix element is in good agreement with the most precise many-body atomic structure calculations. Our method can be universally applied to measurements of transition matrix elements in single ions and atoms of similar structure. [11,12] and experimentally [13], all-optical trapped ion clocks are feasible to be realized in the foreseeable future. One important issue for building such kind of trap is to overcome large ac Stark shifts due to use of high optical power; thus it is necessary to take higher-order effects into account by knowing the corresponding high-order transition matrix elements [14]. In quantum information research, because of long coherence time of the ground and metastable states, selected quadrupole transitions for encoding a quantum bit of information are used to realize quantum logic techniques. In plasma physics, quadrupole transitions open an observational window into hot plasmas of low electron density [15]. In astrophysics, quadrupole transition lines provide information on structure and physical characteristics of interstellar clouds [16,17]. Moreover, electric quadrupole transitions can be used to study atomic parity-violation in heavy ions [18,19]. Finally, comparison between experimentally measured quadrupole transition matrix elements and their corresponding theoretical values can test sophisticated relativistic atomic many-body theories.In principle, dipole transition matrix elements in an atom or ion can be determined by measuring its ac Stark shifts when exposed to a light, using the concept of magic-zero (tune-out) wavelengths, such as the work on where g k = 6 and λ is the transition wavelength inÅ [1].Single 40 Ca + ion is first laser cooled and trapped in a miniature ring Paul trap. A high-efficiency quantum state detection method for fluorescence counting and a highly synchronized measurement sequence for laser conarXiv:1609.04177v1 [physics.atom-ph]