Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 17: Precision Measurements and Metrology IV (with Q)
A 17.1: Talk
Tuesday, March 24, 2015, 14:30–14:45, P/H1
Recent results of the Space Optical Clock 2 EU project (SOC2). A compact, transportable optical lattice clock. — •Lyndsie Smith1, Stefano Origlia2, Joshua Hughes1, Wei He1, Ole Kock1, Dariusz Świerad1, Yeshpal Singh1, Kai Bongs1, Soroosh Alighanbari2, Stephan Schiller2, Stefan Vogt3, Uwe Sterr3, Christian Lisdat3, Rudolphe Le Targat4, Jèrôme Lodewyck4, David Holleville4, Bertrand Venon4, Sébastien Bize4, Geoffrey P Barwood5, Patrick Gill5, Ian R Hill5, Yuri B Ovchinnikov5, Nicola Poli6, Guglielmo M Tino6, Jürgen Stuhler7, Wilhelm Kaenders7, and and the SOC2 team7 — 1University of Birmingham (UoB), Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK — 2Institut für Experimentalphysik,Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf (HHUD),40225 Düsseldorf, Germany — 3Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), 38116 Braunschweig, Germany — 4SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, 75014 Paris, France — 5National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Teddington TW11 0LW, UK — 6Università di Firenze (UNIFI) and LENS, Firenze, Italy — 7TOPTICA Photonics AG, 82166 Gräfelfing, Germany
With timekeeping being of paramount importance for modern life, much research and major scientific advances have been undertaken in the field of frequency metrology, particularly over the last few years. New Nobel-prize winning technologies have enabled a new era of atomic clocks; namely the optical clock. These have been shown to perform significantly better than the best microwave clocks reaching an inaccuracy of 1.6·10−18 (doi:10.1038/nature12941). With such results being found in large lab based apparatus, the focus now has shifted to portability - to enable the accuracy of various ground based clocks to be measured, and compact autonomous performance - to enable such technologies to be tested in space. This could lead to a master clock in space, improving not only the accuracy of technologies on which modern life has come to require such as GPS and communication networks. But also more fundamentally, this could lead to the redefinition of the second and tests of fundamental physics. Within the European collaboration, Space Optical Clocks 2 (SOC2) consisting of various institutes and industry partners across Europe we have tried to tackle this problem of miniaturisation whilst maintaining stability, accuracy (5·10−17) and robustness whilst keeping power consumption to a minimum - ideal for space applications. I will present the most recent results of the Sr optical clock in SOC2 and also the novel compact design features for reducing BBR, new methods employed and outlook.