Absolute frequency measurement of the In+ clock transition with a mode-locked laser.

The absolute frequency of the In(+) 5s(2) (1)S(0)5s5p (3)P(0) clock transition at 237 nm was measured with an accuracy of 1.8 parts in 10(13). Using a phase-coherent frequency chain, we compared the (1)S(0)(3)P(0) transition with a methane-stabilized HeNe laser at 3.39 microm, which was calibrated against an atomic cesium fountain clock. A frequency gap of 37 THz at the fourth harmonic of the HeNe standard was bridged by a frequency comb generated by a mode-locked femtosecond laser. The frequency of the In(+) clock transition was found to be 1,267,402,452,899.92 (0.23) kHz, the accuracy being limited by the uncertainty of the HeNe laser reference. This result represents an improvement in accuracy of more than 2 orders of magnitude over previous measurements of the line and now stands as what is to our knowledge the most accurate measurement of an optical transition in a single ion.s.