Long-Lived Coherence on a μHz Scale Optical Magnetic Quadrupole Transition

Abstract

We report on the coherent excitation of the ultranarrow S01-P23 magnetic quadrupole transition in Sr88. By confining atoms in a state insensitive optical lattice, we achieve excitation fractions of 97(1)% and observe linewidths as narrow as 58(1) Hz. With Ramsey spectroscopy, we find coherence times of 14(1) ms, which can be extended to 266(36) ms using a spin-echo sequence. We determine the lifetime of the P23 level for spontaneous emission of magnetic quadrupole radiation to be 110(31) min, confirming long-standing theoretical predictions. These results establish an additional clock transition in strontium and pave the way for applications of the metastable P23 state in quantum computing and quantum simulations.