Electric quadrupole moment of the 5d/sup2/ D/sub3∕2/ state in /sup171/Yb/sup+/: A relativistic coupled-cluster analysis

Abstract

The electric quadrupole moment for the 5d 2D3/2 state of 171Yb+, has been calculated using the relativistic coupled-cluster method. Earlier a similar calculation was performed for the 4d 2D5/2 state of 88Sr+ which is the most accurate determination to date [Sur et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 193001 (2006)]. The present calculation of the electric quadrupole moment of 171Yb+ yielded a value 2.157ea₀² where the experimental value is 2.08(11)ea₀²; a0 is the Bohr radius and e the elementary charge. We discuss in this paper our results for 171Yb+ in detail and highlight the dominant correlation effects present. We have presented the effect of inner core excitations and their contribution to the electric quadrupole moment, which is a property sensitive to regions away from the nucleus.