  We present a detailed description of the observation of parity violation in
the 1S0-3D1 408-nm forbidden transition of ytterbium, a brief report of which
appeared earlier. Linearly polarized 408-nm light interacts with Yb atoms in
crossed E- and B-fields. The probability of the 408-nm transition contains a
parity violating term, proportional to (Elight . B)[(E x Elight) . B], arising
from interference between the parity violating amplitude and the Stark
amplitude due to the E-field (Elight is the electric field of the light). The
transition probability is detected by measuring the population of the 3P0
state, to which 65% of the atoms excited to the 3D1 state spontaneously decay.
The population of the 3P0 state is determined by resonantly exciting the atoms
with 649-nm light to the 6s7s 3S1 state and collecting the fluorescence
resulting from its decay. Systematic corrections due to E-field and B-field
imperfections are determined in auxiliary experiments. The statistical
uncertainty is dominated by parasitic frequency excursions of the 408-nm
excitation light due to imperfect stabilization of the optical reference with
respect to the atomic resonance. The present uncertainties are 9% statistical
and 8% systematic. Methods of improving the accuracy for the future experiments
are discussed.
