Toward Robust, Stable, and Accurate Single Atom Optical Clocks

Jonas Bergquist

Jonas Bergquist

Andrew D. Ludlow

Simone Colombo

Clément Lacroûte

Optical atomic clocks are the world's most accurate instruments. In this presentation, I will first introduce the general principle of atomic clocks. In a second part I will show how optical clocks are both more stable and more accurate than microwave clocks. In a final part, I will introduce the ongoing trapped ion clock project at FEMTO-ST.

Ivaylo S. Madjarov, Alexandre Cooper, Adam L. Shaw +5 more

Currently, the most accurate and stable clocks use optical interrogation of either a single ion or an ensemble of neutral atoms confined in an optical lattice.Here, we demonstrate a new optical clock system based on an array of individually trapped neutral atoms with single-atom readout, merging many of the benefits of ion and lattice clocks as well as creating a bridge to recently developed techniques in quantum simulation and computing with neutral atoms.We evaluate single-site-resolved frequency shifts and shortterm stability via self-comparison.Atom-by-atom feedback control enables direct experimental estimation of laser noise contributions.Results agree well with an ab initio Monte Carlo simulation that incorporates finite temperature, projective readout, laser noise, and feedback dynamics.Our approach, based on a tweezer array, also suppresses interaction shifts while retaining a short dead time, all in a comparatively simple experimental setup suited for transportable operation.These results establish the foundations for a third optical clock platform and provide a novel starting point for entanglement-enhanced metrology, quantum clock networks, and applications in quantum computing and communication with individual neutral atoms that require optical-clock-state control.