High-Accuracy Measure of Atomic Polarizability in an Optical Lattice Clock
Abstract
Despite being a canonical example of quantum mechanical perturbation theory, as well as one of the earliest observed spectroscopic shifts, the Stark effect contributes the largest source of uncertainty in a modern optical atomic clock through blackbody radiation. By employing an ultracold, trapped atomic ensemble and high stability optical clock, we characterize the quadratic Stark effect with unprecedented precision. We report the ytterbium optical clock's sensitivity to electric fields (such as blackbody radiation) as the differential static polarizability of the ground and excited clock levels: 36.2612(7) kHz (kV/cm)^{-2}. The clock's fractional uncertainty due to room temperature blackbody radiation is reduced an order of magnitude to 3 \times 10^{-17}.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 11, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA633803
Entities
People
- A. D. Ludlow
- C. W. Oates
- J. A. Sherman
- M. Pizzocaro
- N. D. Lemke
- N. Hinkley
- R. W. Fox
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology