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Physics 2003
Lifetime measurement of the metastable 3d 2D5/2 state in the 40Ca+ ion using the shelving technique on a few-ion stringDOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.69.032503 Abstract: We present a measurement of the lifetime of the metastable 3d 2D5/2 state in the 40Ca+ ion, using the so-called shelving technique on a string of five Doppler laser-cooled ions in a linear Paul trap. A detailed account of the data analysis is given, and systematic effects due to unwanted excitation processes and collisions with background gas atoms are discussed and estimated. From a total of 6805 shelving events, we obtain a lifetime tau=1149+/-14(stat.)+/-4(sys.)ms, a result which is in agreement with the most recent measurements.
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