Direct measurement of isotope shifts in the barium 6s^2 ^1S_0 - 5d6p ^3D^o_1 transition

We report the first direct measurement of isotope shifts of the barium 6s^2 ^1S_0 - 5d6p ^3D^o_1 413nm electric quadrupole transition, which is utilized for efficient barium ion trapping via photoionization using a single coherent light source. The measured isotope shifts relative to ^138Ba are 392.5±0.6 MHz, 177.8±0.4 MHz, 400.6±1.0 MHz, and 125.9±1.4 MHz for isotopes with atomic number 137, 136, 135 and 134, respectively. We verified the measured isotopes with King plot analysis and compared the result with the formerly known shifts inferred from previous studies on neighboring transitions. The results could be used for efficient isotope selective loading of low-abundant barium ions, while careful suppression of line broadening is required for successful isotopic selectivity.