Scientists at JILA, a joint institute of NIST and the University of Colorado Boulder, have developed the world’s most precise and accurate atomic clock. This new clock, which uses an optical lattice to trap and measure tens of thousands of atoms simultaneously, represents a major advancement in timekeeping technology.
The clock’s unprecedented precision could enable more accurate navigation and exploration in space, particularly for missions to Mars and beyond. As humans venture farther into the solar system, precise timekeeping will be crucial for landing spacecraft with pinpoint accuracy.
In addition to its potential applications in navigation, the new clock could also pave the way for breakthroughs in quantum computing. The techniques used to control and measure microscopic quantum systems have significantly advanced the field of quantum computing, which relies on precisely manipulating the internal properties of individual atoms or molecules.
The clock’s exquisite precision also promises to shed light on some of the universe’s deepest mysteries, such as the intersection of quantum mechanics and general relativity. By measuring tiny effects predicted by these theories at the microscopic scale, researchers are cracking open new doors to understanding the fundamental nature of reality.
The new JILA clock uses a web of light known as an optical lattice to trap and measure tens of thousands of individual atoms simultaneously. This new wave of clocks illuminates atoms with visible light waves, which have a much higher frequency, to count out the second much more precisely. Compared with current microwave clocks, optical clocks are expected to deliver much higher accuracy for international timekeeping – potentially losing only one second every 30 billion years.
The researchers describe their advances in Physical Review Letters. Alexander Aeppli, Kyungtae Kim, William Warfield, Marianna S. Safronova, and Jun Ye published a paper titled “A clock with 8 × 10−19 systematic uncertainty.” The paper was published online July 10, 2024, and has the DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.023401.
Keywords: Precision, Atomic, Relativity, Quantum , Measurement
