Precision measurement of M1 optical clock transition in Ni^{12+}

Abstract

Highly charged ions (HCIs) have drawn significant interest in quantum metrology and in the search for new physics. Among these, Ni^{12+} is considered as one of the most promising candidates for the next generation of HCI optical clocks, due to its two E1-forbidden transitions M1 and E2, which occur in the visible spectral range. In this work, we used the Shanghai-Wuhan electron beam ion trap to perform a high-precision measurement of the M1 transition wavelength. Our approach involved an improved calibration scheme for the spectra, utilizing auxiliary Ar^{+} lines for calibration and correction. Our final measured result of the M1 transition wavelength demonstrates a fivefold improvement in accuracy compared to our previous findings, reaching the subpicometer level accuracy. In combination with our rigorous atomic-structure calculations to capture the electron correlations and relativistic effects, the quantum electrodynamic corrections were extracted.