Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 17: Precision Measurements and Metrology IV (with Q)

A 17.4: Talk

Tuesday, March 24, 2015, 15:15–15:30, P/H1

Miniaturised optical lattice clock — •Ole Kock, Wei He, Lyndsie Smith, Dariusz Swierad, Qasim Ubaid, Sruthi Viswam, Yeshpal Singh, and Kai Bongs — University of Birmingham (UoB), Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

A major scientific development over the last decade, namely clocks based on optical rather than microwave transitions, has opened a new era in time/frequency metrology. Several Physics Nobel prizes (1997, 2001, 2005, 2012) were awarded for methods that have enabled optical clocks showing the significance of their development. Optical clocks have now achieved a performance significantly beyond that of the best microwave clocks, down to a fractional frequency inaccuracy of 1.6 · 10⁻¹⁸. The advances in this field open up a multitude of new applications. One can envision optical clocks improving the accuracy of GNSS receivers and the resilience of high speed communication networks as well as enabling the operation of a master clock in space. For such endeavours great work has to be done to miniaturise optical clocks and increase their robustness. I will present our design of a portable miniaturised optical lattice clock which aims at a stability of one part in 10¹⁶ or better. As part of the miniaturisation efforts a novel method of a very compact atomic source which greatly reduces effects of the blackbody shift on the clock transition and new technologies for a miniature self-contained vacuum chamber will be introduced.