Precision clock traps atoms in light to keep time

Masatoshi Kajita

Brian Matthews, Hayden McGuinness

We designed a 935 nm repump beam path for use in a Ytterbium ion based optical clock.This state of the art clock work makes use multiple ensembles of ions trapped in separate RF potentials.Separate beams are amplified for coupling into the chip's integrated waveguides for precision pumping of ions out of dark states.The board acts as both a switch and modulation board.The pump beam is frequency locked to a wavemeter.Two beams are amplified and coupled into the integrated waveguides.The other two beams will be used for free space light delivery.Optical Atomic Clocks: Current atomic cesium clocks count in the range of microwave frequencies with uncertainties approaching 10 -16 [1].Optical atomic clocks based on ultra-stable laser addressing of narrow atomic linewidths achieve frequency uncertainties of ~10 -18 [2].These advanced clocks will impact technologies which rely on precision time keeping such as GPS, computing, and communication.

Andrei Derevianko, Hidetoshi Katori

Recently invented and demonstrated optical lattice clocks hold great promise for improving the precision of modern time keeping. These clocks aim at the ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}18}$ fractional accuracy, which translates into a clock that would neither lose nor gain a fraction of a second over an estimated age of the Universe. In these clocks, millions of atoms are trapped and interrogated simultaneously, dramatically improving clock stability. Here the principles of operation of these clocks are discussed and, in particular, a novel concept of magic trapping of atoms in optical lattices. Recently proposed microwave lattice clocks are also highlights and several applications that employ the optical lattice clocks as a platform for precision measurements and quantum information processing.

E. Abraham, Michael A. Morrison