TY - JOUR
AU - B. Bloom
AU - Travis Nicholson
AU - J. Williams
AU - S. Campbell
AU - M. Bishof
AU - X. Zhang
AU - W. Zhang
AU - Sarah Bromley
AU - Jun Ye
AB - Progress in atomic, optical and quantum science has led to rapid improvements in atomic clocks.Atthe same time,atomic clock research has helped to advance the frontiers of science, affecting both fundamental and applied research.The ability to controlquantumstates of individual atoms and photons is central to quantuminformation science and precisionmeasurement, and optical clocks based on single ions have achieved the lowest systematic uncertainty of any frequency standard. Although many-atom lattice clocks have shown advantages in measurement precision over trapped-ion clocks, their accuracy has remained 16 times worse. Here we demonstrate a many-atom system that achieves an accuracy of 6.4x10-18, which is not only better than a single-ion-based clock, but also reduces the required measurement time by two orders of magnitude. By systematically evaluating all known sources of uncertainty, including in situ monitoring of the blackbody radiation environment, we improve the accuracy of optical lattice clocks by a factor of 22. This single clock has simultaneously achieved the best known performance in the key characteristics necessary for consideration as a primary standard—stability and accuracy. More stable and accurate atomic clocks will benefit a wide range of fields, such as the realization and distribution of SI units, the search for time variation of fundamental constants, clock-based geodesy and other precision tests of the fundamental laws of nature. This work also connects to the development of quantum sensors and many-body quantum state engineering (such as spin squeezing) to advance measurement precision beyond the standard quantum limit.
BT - Nature
DA - 2014-01
DO - 10.1038/nature12941
N2 - Progress in atomic, optical and quantum science has led to rapid improvements in atomic clocks.Atthe same time,atomic clock research has helped to advance the frontiers of science, affecting both fundamental and applied research.The ability to controlquantumstates of individual atoms and photons is central to quantuminformation science and precisionmeasurement, and optical clocks based on single ions have achieved the lowest systematic uncertainty of any frequency standard. Although many-atom lattice clocks have shown advantages in measurement precision over trapped-ion clocks, their accuracy has remained 16 times worse. Here we demonstrate a many-atom system that achieves an accuracy of 6.4x10-18, which is not only better than a single-ion-based clock, but also reduces the required measurement time by two orders of magnitude. By systematically evaluating all known sources of uncertainty, including in situ monitoring of the blackbody radiation environment, we improve the accuracy of optical lattice clocks by a factor of 22. This single clock has simultaneously achieved the best known performance in the key characteristics necessary for consideration as a primary standard—stability and accuracy. More stable and accurate atomic clocks will benefit a wide range of fields, such as the realization and distribution of SI units, the search for time variation of fundamental constants, clock-based geodesy and other precision tests of the fundamental laws of nature. This work also connects to the development of quantum sensors and many-body quantum state engineering (such as spin squeezing) to advance measurement precision beyond the standard quantum limit.
PY - 2014
SE - 71
SP - 71
EP - 75
T2 - Nature
TI - An optical lattice clock with accuracy and stability at the 10-18 level
UR - http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/nature12941
VL - 506
SN - 0028-0836
ER -