Optical clocks are the most precise measurement devices. Here we experimentally characterize one such clock based on the 1S0-3P0 transition of neutral 171Yb atoms confined in an optical lattice. Given that the systematic evaluation using an interleaved stabilization scheme is unable to avoid noise from the clock laser, synchronous comparisons against a second 171Yb lattice system were implemented to accelerate the evaluation. The fractional instability of one clock falls below 4 × 10−17 after an averaging over a time of 5,000 seconds. The systematic frequency shifts were corrected with a total uncertainty of 1.7 × 10−16. The lattice polarizability shift currently contributes the largest source. This work paves the way to measuring the absolute clock transition frequency relative to the primary Cs standard or against the International System of Units (SI) second.
An optical atomic clock with 171Yb atoms is devised and tested. By using a two-stage Doppler cooling technique, the 171Yb atoms are cooled down to a temperature of 6±3 μK, which is close to the Doppler limit. Then, the cold 171Yb atoms are loaded into a one-dimensional optical lattice with a wavelength of 759 nm in the Lamb—Dicke regime. Furthermore, these cold 171Yb atoms are excited from the ground-state 1S0 to the excited-state 3P0 by a clock laser with a wavelength of 578 nm. Finally, the 1S0–3P0 clock-transition spectrum of these 171Yb atoms is obtained by measuring the dependence of the population of the ground-state 1S0 upon the clock-laser detuning.
We present a detailed study of the clock-transition spectrum of cold 171 Yb ytterbium atoms in a 1D optical lattice. A typical clock-transition spectrum with a carrier-sideband structure is observed. After minimizing the power broadening effect and compensating the stray magnetic field, the carrier linewidth is narrowed to about 16 Hz for a 60 ms interrogation time. By increasing the interrogation time to 150 ms, the linewidth is further reduced to 6.8 Hz. By applying the bias magnetic field parallel to the clock-laser polarization, a two-peak spectrum corresponding to two π transitions is obtained. Finally, spin polarization of atoms to a single desired Zeeman sublevel of the ground state is also demonstrated. The presented results will be very useful for developing better optical lattice clocks.
The experiments on the laser cooling and trapping of ytterbium atoms are reported, including the two-dimensional transversal cooling, longitudinal velocity Zeeman deceleration, and a magneto-optical trap with a broadband transition at a wavelength of 399 nm. The magnetic field distributions along the axis of a Zeeman slower were measured and in a good agreement with the calculated results. Cold ytterbium atoms were produced with a number of about 10 7 and a temperature of a few milli-Kelvin. In addition, using a 556-nm laser, the excitations of cold ytterbium atoms at 1 S0-3 P1 transition were observed. The ytterbium atoms will be further cooled in a 556-nm magneto-optical trap and loaded into a three-dimensional optical lattice to make an ytterbium optical clock.
The optical atomic clocks have the potential to transform global timekeeping, relying on the state-of-the-art accuracy and stability, and greatly improve the measurement precision for a wide range of scientific and technological applications. Herein we report on the development of the optical clock based on 171Yb atoms confined in an optical lattice. A minimum width of 1.92-Hz Rabi spectra has been obtained with a new 578-nm clock interrogation laser. The in-loop fractional instability of the 171Yb clock reaches 9.1 × 10−18 after an averaging over a time of 2.0 × 104 s. By synchronous comparison between two clocks, we demonstrate that our 171Yb optical lattice clock achieves a fractional instability of 4.60 × 10 − 16 / τ .
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