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

Towards a Transportable Optical Frequency Standard Based on a Single Yb+ Ion

Y. H. Zheng, Yiting Chen, S. N. Miao, Wen‐Xin Shi, Shuotian Chen, Shiguang Wang, Jianwei Zhang, Lijun Wang, Xiaobo Xue, Shengkang Zhang, Yani Zuo

Published May 12, 2025• 1 citation

Abstract

SummaryThe optical clock based on trapped ions has attracted great interest due to the important significance in fundamental physics and application prospects in metrology of time and frequency. The ytterbium ion has unique advantages in developing transportable and miniaturized optical clocks because it has long storage time and its related laser system is compact. In addition, the171Yb+ion has two clock transition lines, which can perform frequency self-comparison. This paper mainly introduces the progress in the development of the transportable optical clock system based on the single171Yb+ion at Tsinghua University, China. A transportable physical package, including the vacuum system, optic system and imaging system is presented and implemented to automatically detect the presence of trapped ion.

DOI: 10.1109/eftf/ifcs64367.2025.11194442

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With the development of optical frequency comb and ultra-stable laser techniques, the performance of optical frequency standards has been improved significantly over the past decades. Single charged Yb ions have an alkali-like atomic structure and have ultra-long storage time. And the ytterbium single-ion optical frequency standards have two clock transitions (E2 & E3). In this paper, we will introduce the progress in the development of a highly accurate optical frequency standard based on single ytterbium-171 ion at the National Institute of Metrology (NIM), China.

For the past 15 years, tremendous progress within the fields of laser stabilization, optical frequency combs and atom cooling and trapping have allowed the realization of optical atomic clocks with unrivaled performances. These instruments can perform frequency comparisons with fractional uncertainties well below 10-17, finding applications in fundamental physics tests, relativistic geodesy and time and frequency metrology. Even though most optical clocks are currently laboratory setups, several proposals for using these clocks for field measurements or within an optical clock network have been published, and most of time and frequency metrology institutes have started to develop transportable optical clocks. For the purpose of this special issue, we chose to focus on trapped-ion optical clocks. Even though their short-term fractional frequency stability is impaired by a lower signal-to-noise ratio, they offer a high potential for compactness: trapped ions demand low optical powers and simple loading schemes, and can be trapped in small vacuum chambers. We review recent advances on the clock key components, including ion trap and ultra-stable optical cavity, as well as existing projects and experiments which draw the picture of what future transportable, single-ion optical clocks may resemble.

Optical clocks serve as the benchmark devices for the next-generation definition of the second and have significant applications in testing the theories beyong the standard models, dark matter research, and related fields.The ytterbium ion optical clock, featuring two clock transition lines, is among the most precise optical clocks with the lowest uncertainties.The National Institute of Metrology, China (NIM), initiated research on ytterbium ion optical clocks in 2021.Based on an end-cap ion trap, a vacuum system has been established.A 370 nm thirdharmonic fiber laser, along with 760 nm and 935 nm DFB lasers, ensures a stable operation of the optical system.To date, both the electric quadrupole and electric octupole clock transitions have been observed.A 2.8 Hz linewidth of the electric octupole transition has been achieved, with a stability of 1.7E-15 τ -1/2 after closed-loop locking.The uncertainties due to AC Starks shift from clock laser and second-order Doppler shifts are being evaluated, with an expected total uncertainty below 5E-18.

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