2Shyperfine structure of atomic deuterium

Abstract

We have measured the frequency splitting between the (2S, F = 1/2) and (2S, F = 3/2) hyperfine sublevels in atomic deuterium by an optical differential method based on two-photon Doppler-free spectroscopy on a cold atomic beam. The result f (D) HFS (2S) = 40 924 454(7) Hz is the most precise value for this interval to date. In comparison to the previous radio-frequency measurement we have improved the accuracy by the factor of three. The specific combination of hyperfine frequency intervals for metastable-and ground states in deuterium atom D21 = 8fHFS (1S) derived from our measurement is in a good agreement with D21 calculated from quantum-electrodynamics theory.

Hydrogen-deuterium isotope shift: From the1S−2S-transition frequency to the proton-deuteron charge-radius difference

“…The optical measurements of the 2S hyperfine intervals in H and D [18,19] together with the radio-frequency measurements of the ground-state splitting [20,21] give a result of f HFS = 215 225 596.5(2.9) Hz. This is a factor of 4.5 more accurate than the value used in [2] due to the improved 2S interval frequencies as reported in Refs.…”

Precision physics of simple atoms: QED tests, nuclear structure and fundamental constants

“…All experimental results but two were obtained by a direct measurement of the microwave transitions for the 1s and 2s hyperfine intervals. However, two of the most recent results obtained for hydrogen [106,115] and deuterium [109,115] have been achieved by means of laser spectroscopy and the measured transitions lie in the ultraviolet range [106]. The hydrogen level scheme is depicted in Fig.…”

Testing the Stability of the Fine Structure Constant in the Laboratory

“…During the last decades precision spectroscopic experiments on hydrogen and deuterium atoms have yielded new accurate values for the Rydberg constant (Biraben et al 2001), the ground-state Lamb shift (Weitz et al 1994), the deuteron structure radius (Huber et al 1998), and the 2S hyperfine structure (Kolachevsky et al 2004a(Kolachevsky et al , 2004b. Accurate optical frequency measurements allow for sensitive tests of quantum electrodynamics (QED), which are based on comparisons between experimental values and results from corresponding QED calculations (for review see Eides et al 2001;Ivanov 2002a, 2002b).…”