Naslov
Towards the first strontium optical atomic clock in Croatia

Autori
I. Puljić, D. Aumiler, T. Ban, N. Šantić

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, ostalo, znanstveni

Skup
52nd Conference of the European Group on Atomic Systems (EGAS52)

Mjesto i datum
Zagreb, Hrvatska, 06.-08.07.2021

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Poster

Vrsta recenzije
Nije recenziran

Ključne riječi
strontium atoms, optical atomic clock, magneto-optical trap, stabilization, optical frequency comb

Sažetak
Development of atomic clocks has enabled technological and scientific advances like Global Navigation Satellite Systems, very-long-baseline interferometry, tests of general relativity and of the time-variation of fundamental physical constants, with further proposals for their use for the detection of dark mater and gravitational waves. The advent of optical frequency combs two decades ago has enabled improvements in the accuracy and precision of atomic clocks of over two orders of magnitude by enabling practical measurements of optical clock transitions. Strontium is often used in such optical atomic clocks, with current state-of-the-art clocks reaching a level of stability of 10^(-17)τ^(-1/2) and a level of accuracy bellow 10^(-18)[1]. In our experiment hot strontium atoms leaving the effusive oven will be first transversely cooled and then slowed down by using a Zeeman slower. Next, they enter a 2D magneto-optical trap (MOT) chamber and are pushed to a 3D-MOT chamber under a 45 angle relative to the entering direction. This way, uncooled atoms of the atomic beam do not enter the science chamber, the Zeeman slower beam is prevented from crossing the 3D-MOT and atoms in the 3D-MOT chamber are not affected by black-body radiation from the oven. In the 3D-MOT chamber, a blue and red 3D MOT will be used to cool down the atoms. Once cooled, atoms will be confined in optical tweezers or a multiplexed 1D lattice. Stabilization of our laser systems will be based on an 1550 nm fiber laser stabilized to a high-finesse optical cavity and a low-noise frequency comb will be locked to it. The frequency comb spectrum will then be broadened with nonlinear processes to the required wavelenghts. Repumper lasers (at 679 nm and 707 nm), a red cooling laser (689 nm) and a clock laser (698 nm) will be phase locked to the frequency comb which will make the setup highly stable and simple. Also, since stabilizing both repumper lasers to the comb makes them phase coherent, it will be possible to perform Raman transitions between the long-lived states 3P0 and 3P2 and use them for high-resolution processing. References: [1] S. L. Campbell et al., Science 358, 90–94 (2017).

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Fizika

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