In the pursuit of developing an optical lattice clock with mercury as the quantum absorber, we describe an experiment that produces dipole lattice trapping of neutral mercury atoms. We report on the details of an optical lattice trap with light near the predicted magic wavelength and on the implementation of a low noise detection system.
We describe our work to develop an optical lattice clock using neutral mercury, which has the potential to reach accuracy near 1 part in 1018owing to its low sensitivity to black body radiation. We describe developments of our experimental setup to allow dipole lattice trapping and spectroscopy in the Lamb-Dicke regime. Specifically, we report on the implementation of a low noise imaging and detection system, on the characterization of the magneto-optic trap from which the dipole trap will be loaded, on the implementation of the dipole lattice trap itself, a challenging task given the wavelength and power requirements.
We are investigating the possibilities of using neutral mercury as a new species to realize a highly accurate atomic clock using the non-perturbing dipole lattice trapping scheme. Typically, accuracy below 10-17 is targeted, which would make neutral mercury an interesting candidate for a redefinition of the SI second. This paper presents our on-going work towards the realization of an optical lattice clock using neutral mercury. We will describe a 254 nm laser source delivering several hundreds of milliWatts at this wavelength with a suitably low frequency noise for laser cooling and magneto-optic trapping. We will describe our vacuum system for magneto-optic trap and report on the status of our work regarding magneto-optic trapping of mercury. We will also describe our clock laser at 266 nm.
We are investigating the possibilities of using neutral mercury as a new species to realize a highly accurate atomic clock using the non-perturbing dipole lattice trapping scheme. Typically, accuracy below 10-17is targeted. This proceeding outlines some properties of neutral mercury which are relevant to an optical lattice clock. We also present our on-going work towards the realization of the mercury optical lattice clock. Design considerations are made about the main subsystems. Recent work on these subsystems is described.
We present details on the ultraviolet lattice spectroscopy of the (6s2) 1S${}_{0}\ensuremath{\leftrightarrow}$ (6$s6p$) 3P0 transition in neutral mercury, specifically 199Hg. Mercury atoms are loaded into a one-dimensional vertically aligned optical lattice from a magneto-optical trap with an rms temperature of $\ensuremath{\sim}$60 $\ensuremath{\mu}$K. We describe aspects of the magneto-optical trapping, the lattice cavity design, and the techniques employed to trap and detect mercury in an optical lattice. The clock-line frequency dependence on lattice depth is measured at a range of lattice wavelengths. We confirm the magic wavelength to be 362.51(0.16) nm. Further observations to those reported by Yi et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 073005 (2011)] are presented regarding the laser excitation of a Wannier-Stark ladder of states.