Suppression of Collisional Shifts in a Strongly Interacting Lattice Clock

Abstract

Optical lattice clocks are comprised of atoms placed in an optical lattice formed by opposing laser beams and can be more precise than traditional microwave atomic clocks because of the higher frequency at which they operate, and the number of atoms available for interrogation. However, interactions between the atoms may lead to shifts in the frequency of the clock transition, usually proportional to the atomic density. Swallows et al. (p. 1043 , published online 3 February) demonstrate an opposite and unexpected effect of interactions: For sufficiently strongly interacting systems, the frequency shift is suppressed. Indeed, in a strontium-based fermionic lattice clock, the shift and its associated spread were reduced by an order of magnitude.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Feb 25, 2011
Source ID
10.1126/science.1196442

Entities

People

  • Ana MarĂ­a Rey
  • Jun Ye
  • Matthew D. Swallows
  • Michael Bishof
  • Michael J. Martin
  • Sebastian Blatt
  • Yige Lin

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Army Research Office
  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • National Institute of Metrology
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • University of Colorado

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Quantum spin resonance or Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy