International Workshop on Ultracold Group II Atoms

Making 10^{-18} fractional frequency measurements with ytterbium optical lattice clocks

22 févr. 2016, 09:30

30m

Paris

Invited talk Session 1

Orateur

Andrew Ludlow (NIST)

Description

We describe the design and operation of an optical lattice clock based on ytterbium. Exploiting a combination of narrowline laser cooling on the 1S0-3P1 transition and quenched sideband cooling on the 1S0-3P0 clock transition, we realize lattice-trapped ytterbium with temperatures <=1 uK. By using large atom number ensembles to reduce quantum projection fluctuation in atomic state measurements, we measure clock stability levels at the 1 x 10^{-18} level over long timescales. By operating two atomic systems in an interleaved interrogation scheme to achieve a composite system with zero dead time, we explore similar levels of instability on faster timescales. Finally, we report on recent efforts towards a full evaluation of systematic shift uncertainties at the 10^{-18} level, including a detailed study of high-order lattice Stark effects.