Conveners
Precision Spectroscopy & Atomic Clocks
- Markus Wiesinger (Ludwig Maximilians Universität (DE))
Highly charged ions (HCI) are promising candidates for novel optical clocks with applications in frequency metrology and tests of fundamental physics [1]. Typically, megakelvin-range temperatures needed to produce HCI hinder high-precision spectroscopy. To overcome this, we extract HCI from an electron beam ion trap (EBIT) and transfer them to a cryogenic linear Paul trap. There, single HCI...
The energy levels of hydrogen-like atoms and ions are accurately described by bound-state quantum electrodynamics (QED). The frequency of the narrow 1S-2S transition of atomic hydrogen has been measured with a relative uncertainty of less than $10^{-14}$. In combination with other spectroscopic measurements of hydrogen and hydrogen-like atoms, the Rydberg constant and the proton charge radius...
We report on a transportable and user-friendly optical clock that uses the electric quadrupole transition ($\phantom{}^2S_{1/2}-\phantom{}^2D_{3/2}$) of a single trapped $\phantom{}^{171}$Yb$^+$ ion at 436~nm as the reference. The clock has been developed in an industry-lead collaboration (Opticlock) and is set up in two 19" racks. The main advantages of the system are its ability to robustly...
Nowadays, optical atomic clocks based on trapped ions regularly reach relative systematic uncertainties in the region of $10^{-18}$. This resolution can be used to resolve height differences in geodesy and for the search for variation of fundamental constants, dark matter coupling to classical matter, or other new physics concepts [1], [2]. The fundamental quantum projection noise (QPN) limits...
