Abstract:
In May 1986, the editors of Phys. Rev. Lett. received and published in June a priority article on the observation of quantum jumps between the 6s$^2$S$_{1/2}$ and 5d$^2$D$_{5/2}$ states of a single barium ion cooled by laser radiation, contained in a radio-frequency trap. Excitation of the metastable state 5s$^2$D$_{5/2}$ with the subsequent emission of even a single photon interrupted the strong fluorescence of the short-lived 6p$^2$P$_{1/2}$ state, in accordance with the mechanism presented by H. Demelt in 1975. However, a week later the editors received an article by other authors, published only in October. Here, the interruption of strong fluorescence during the decay of the Ba$^+$ ion into the metastable state 5d$^2$D$_{5/2}$ was associated with Bohr quantum jumps, postulated by him in 1913. As a result of a retrospective analysis of works reporting the observation of quantum jumps in single ions from 1986 to 2015, the erroneous assertion about the discovery of Bohr quantum jumps was shown and the supposed cause of the misconception was revealed.
Keywords:barium ions, single atoms, quantum jumps, NIEF.
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