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Quantum engineering for optical clocks

Atomic clocks known as optical clocks are more accurate and stable than current timekeepers. Two quantum-engineering approaches could improve the performance of optical clocks even further and extend their applications.
  1. Christian Lisdat

    1. Christian Lisdat is in the Optical Lattice Clocks Working Group, National Metrology Institute (PTB), 38116 Braunschweig, Germany.

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  2. Carsten Klempt

    1. Carsten Klempt is at the Institute for Satellite Geodesy and Inertial Sensing, German Aerospace Center (DLR), 30167 Hannover, Germany.

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Today’s most accurate clocks mark the passage of time using transitions of electrons between two energy states in an atom. Such clock transitions are typically induced by the oscillating light wave of a laser that has long-term and ultrahigh frequency stability. In the case of atomic clocks called optical-lattice clocks, ensembles of atoms that have two outer electrons are trapped in a lattice-like pattern of superimposed optical waves, known as a standing wave. The frequency of the optical-lattice light is chosen to be ‘magic’, which means that the light has minimal impact on the frequency of the electronic transitions used for timekeeping. In two papers in Nature, Pedrozo-Peñafiel et al.1 and Young et al.2 demonstrate how concepts in modern quantum technology could aid the development of next-generation optical-lattice clocks.

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Nature 588, 397-398 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03510-y

References

  1. Pedrozo-Peñafiel, E. et al. Nature 588, 414–418 (2020).

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  2. Young, A. W. et al. Nature 588, 408–413 (2020).

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  3. Oelker, E. et al. Nature Photon. 13, 714–719 (2019).

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  4. Schioppo, M. et al. Nature Photon. 11, 48–52 (2017).

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  5. Schwarz, R. et al. Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 033242 (2020).

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  6. Lemonde, P. & Wolf, P. Phys. Rev. A 72, 033409 (2005).

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