Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 34: Poster 1
Q 34.77: Poster
Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 16:30–19:00, Poster.I+II
Building a transportable optical lattice clock — •Stefan Vogt, Sebastian Häfner, Stephan Falke, Uwe Sterr, and Christian Lisdat — Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Bundesallee 100, 38116 Braunschweig
Optical clocks are today’s most stable frequency standards. Moreover, their precision has surpassed the limits of microwave clocks. Although frequency combs allow for comparison of the ratio of optical frequencies, few comparisons of optical clocks have been reported. This is mostly due to the lack of transportability of these rather bulky and fragile instruments that sometimes fill several rooms.
The comparison of optical frequency standards is needed for a possible re-definition of the second. Moreover, transportable optical clocks may serve as reference for experiments looking for variations of fundamental constants. Future satellite mission may investigate special relativity on a level set by the stability of an on-board clock, which leads to the challenge of putting an optical clock onto a space-craft.
We will present a design of an optical lattice clock working on a ultra-narrow transition of 87Sr with a stability of 1· 10−15 s−1/2 and a relative accuracy of better than 5· 10−17. This is a modular system to be transported in a small trailer to a lab of our choice.
This work is supported by the Centre for Quantum Engineering and Space-Time Research (QUEST) and EU through the Space Optical Clocks (SOC2) project.