Coherent Suppression of Tensor Frequency Shifts through Magnetic Field Rotation

Abstract

We introduce a scheme to coherently suppress second-rank tensor frequency shifts in atomic clocks, relying on the continuous rotation of an external magnetic field during the free atomic state evolution in a Ramsey sequence. The method retrieves the unperturbed frequency within a single interrogation cycle and is readily applicable to various atomic clock systems. For the frequency shift due to the electric quadrupole interaction, we experimentally demonstrate suppression by more than two orders of magnitude for the S21/2→D23/2 transition of a single trapped Yb+171 ion. The scheme provides particular advantages in the case of the Yb+171 S21/2→F27/2 electric octupole (E3) transition. For an improved estimate of the residual quadrupole shift for this transition, we measure the excited state electric quadrupole moments Θ(D23/2)=1.95(1)ea02 and Θ(F27/2)=-0.0297(5)ea02 with e the elementary charge and a0 the Bohr radius, improving the measurement uncertainties by one order of magnitude.