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Towards the Development of an Optical Lattice Clock Using Bosonic Isotopes of Mercury

Clara Zyskind, M. Andia, Changlei Guo, S. Bize

Published Nov 26, 2021• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

In this poster, we will describe the key developments made in our setup to switch from a clock using fermionic isotopes of mercury to bosonic isotopes of mercury. Initially, we must establish the magnetic field necessary for the quenching method, i.e. to induce the bosonic clock transition. We have introduced a technique to create a strong magnetic field during the probing time. Furthermore, we have enhanced our control over the magnetic environment. Secondly, as we aim to observe the clock transition, we have had to enhance the capabilities of our ultrastable light generation. This enhancement was crucial to provide a tuning range sufficient to reach the frequency of any of the five stable bosonic isotopes while maintaining spectral quality. Thirdly, we calculated the theoretical Rabi pulsation for a clock utilizing bosonic isotopes, determining that we must increase the the probe laser power to achieve a sufficiently large Rabi pulsation. This adjustment is necessary to facilitate the initial exploration of the transition.

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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Nov 18, 2014•0 citations
In this poster, we will describe the key developments made in our setup to switch from a clock using fermionic isotopes of mercury to bosonic isotopes of mercury. Initially, we must establish the magnetic field necessary for the quenching method, i.e. to induce the bosonic clock transition. We have introduced a technique to create a strong magnetic field during the probing time. Furthermore, we have enhanced our control over the magnetic environment. Secondly, as we aim to observe the clock transition, we have had to enhance the capabilities of our ultrastable light generation. This enhancement was crucial to provide a tuning range sufficient to reach the frequency of any of the five stable bosonic isotopes while maintaining spectral quality. Thirdly, we calculated the theoretical Rabi pulsation for a clock utilizing bosonic isotopes, determining that we must increase the the probe laser power to achieve a sufficiently large Rabi pulsation. This adjustment is necessary to facilitate the initial exploration of the transition.
We report the observation of the magnetic-field-induced ( 5 d 10 6 s 2 ) S 0 1 − ( 5 d 10 6 s 6 p ) P 0 3 transition in a bosonic isotope of mercury, Hg 198 , realized in an optical lattice clock. We characterize this Hg 198 clock transition at 265.6 nm, determining key features such as the quadratic Zeeman shift, the probe light shift, and the magic frequency. We also report a comparison between the Hg 198 optical lattice clock and Sr 87 . In this comparison, the Hg 198 clock has a relative frequency stability of 6 × 10 − 16 / τ / s and a total relative systematic uncertainty of 6.9 × 10 − 16 . This comparison yields the first direct determination of the Hg 198 / Sr 87 optical frequency ratio: Hg 198 / Sr 87 = 2.629 315 734 684 118 1 , with the same relative uncertainty.
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.
We describe progress toward an optical lattice clock based on an even isotope of Yb. The 1S0 → 3P0 clock resonance in 174Yb is accessed through a magnetically induced spectroscopic technique. Using ≈1mT static magnetic fields and ≈10 μW of probe light power we generate Rabi frequencies of several hertz. The narrow spectroscopic features that result (< 10 Hz FWHM) require a highly stabilized laser at the clock transition wavelength of 578 nm. We describe a new all solid-state laser system that shows hertz level stability. In order to cancel the slow drift of the cavity, spectroscopy is performed on the clock transition to provide feedback to the laser. Using a Ca neutral atom frequency standard as a reference oscillator,we show high stability and an effective method for investigating clock frequency shift systematics.
We present experimental results for an optical lattice clock operating on the1S0harr3P0transition in88Sr, which is excited with the technique of magnetic field-induced spectroscopy To reduce the complexity of the setup we have developed a set of new experimental techniques that greatly simplifies the clock spectroscopy in Sr atoms. First, we developed a method for finding the clock transition that removes the need for extensive frequency metrology hardware and optical frequency combs. This technique exploits a near coincidence in the atomic wavelengths of the1S0harr3P0clock and1S0harr3P1second stage cooling transitions in Sr, which are only 5 THz far apart. This coincidence enables the use of an optical (transfer) cavity to reference the frequency of the clock transition relative to that of the much stronger coolign transition Second, all laser sources in the experimental setup are based on semiconductor technology, which greatly reduces the complexity of the apparatus. With this setup, about 10488Sr atoms are trapped in a 1D lattice formed by 200 mW of radiation tuned near the magic wavelength at 813 nm. Preliminar uncertainty budget for our optical lattice clock is also presented, with particular attention to density dependent collisions, which led to an unexpectedly high signal contrast for long interaction times.
Mercury is the heaviest stable atom that could be laser cooled, and have a large nuclear charge number. So it has a distinct advantage in quantum precision measurement such as fine-structure constant α and permanent electric dipole moment. Due to its insensitivity of black body radiation, atomic mercury is a good candidate of optical clock. Here we report our recent development of laser cooling of neutral mercury atom. By cooling the mercury source to about -70°C, an ultra-high vacuum system was realized to produce ultracold mercury atoms. The commercial frequency quadrupled semiconductor laser is locked on the cooling transition (1S0-3P1 transition, wavelength of 253.7 nm) by sub-Doppler frequency modulation spectroscopy. By the modification with feed-forward method, the UV laser becomes faster tunable and more stable. A folded beam configuration was used to realize the magneto-optical trap (MOT) because of the shortage of cooling laser power, and the ultracold mercury atoms were observed by fluorescence detection. All of six rich abundant isotopes have been observed, and the atom number is about 1.5×106 with density of 3.5×109 /cm3 for 202Hg. With optical shutter and the programmable system to control the time sequence, the temperature of ultracold atoms can be measured by time of flight method. To enhance the laser power, a 1014.8 nm fiber laser amplifier was developed, which can work at room temperature. After two stages of frequency doubling, about 75 mW of 253.7 nm UV laser were generated, and the saturated absorption spectroscopy of mercury atom was also observed. More power of UV laser could help to trap more atoms in the future. These works laid a good foundation to realize the mercury lattice clock.