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Joint Conference of the European Frequency and Time Forum and IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium (EFTF/IFCS)

Towards an Optical Lattice Clock Based on Neutral Mercury

Michael Petersen, Daniel Varela Magalhães, C. Mandache, O. Acef, André Clairon

Published May 1, 2007• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1109/freq.2007.4319154

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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 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.
The optical lattice clock develops fast in recent years, and its stability and accuracy has already surpassed the microwave fountain clock and the optical clock based on ion trap. The mercury (Hg) lattice clock has the possibility to make a breakthrough in the limitation of blackbody radiation shift for strontium (Sr) and ytterbium (Yb) lattice clock, and reach the uncertainty in E-18 level at room temperature. For the purposes of laser cooling of mercury atoms and interrogating of the clock transition from1S0state to3P0state, a high-power cooling laser at 253.7 nm and an ultra-stable Hz-level linewidth laser at 265.6 nm are required, respectively. Here, we report our development of these laser sources for a neutral Hg lattice clock.
We report vapor-cell magneto-optical trapping of Hg isotopes on the (1)S(0)-(3)P(1) intercombination transition. Six abundant isotopes, including four bosons and two fermions, were trapped. Hg is the heaviest nonradioactive atom trapped so far, which enables sensitive atomic searches for "new physics" beyond the standard model. We propose an accurate optical lattice clock based on Hg and evaluate its systematic accuracy to be better than 10;{-18}. Highly accurate and stable Hg-based clocks will provide a new avenue for the research of optical lattice clocks and the time variation of the fine-structure constant.
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.
Abstract We present several developments aimed at improving the stability of optical lattice clocks. First, we present our developments of an optical lattice clock using neutral mercury. We mention recent advances made with the fermionic isotope 199Hg. We also mention our work aimed at using bosonic isotopes, which offer the possibility to circumvent the relatively short lifetime of the upper clock state in 199Hg. Second, we present our work on a non-destructive detection in a Sr optical lattice clock. We describe developments that brought the detection scheme from the classical non-destructive regime to the quantum non-destructive regime. Our detection scheme is practical and has the capability to the used beyond proving the principle. Finally, we present our work on laser stabilization using spectral hole burning in a Eu3+:Y2SiO5 crystal at cryogenic temperatures. We describe our development of low noise interrogation based on digital IQ modulation and detection that can probe multiple spectral features simultaneously, as well as several investigations towards fluctuating environmental factors. These advances, individually or combined for example with spectral purity transfer with combs and composite clock approaches, shall bring significant progress in clock stability and accuracy.