Determination of the 5d6s 3D1 state lifetime and blackbody-radiation clock shift in Yb

The Stark shift of the ytterbium (Yb) optical clock transition due to room-temperature blackbody radiation is dominated by a static Stark effect, which was recently measured to high accuracy [J. A. Sherman , Phys. Rev. Lett.PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.108.153002 108, 153002 (2012)]. However, room-temperature realization of the clock at 10^-18 uncertainty requires a dynamic contribution to this static approximation. This dynamic term largely depends on a single electric dipole matrix element for which theoretically and experimentally derived values disagree significantly. We determine this important matrix element by two independent methods, which yield consistent values. Along with precise radiative lifetimes of 6s6p³P₁ and 5d6s³D₁, we report the clock shift due to an ideal 300 K blackbody environment to 0.05% precision.