Dresden 2011 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 57: Poster 3: Quantengase, Ultrakalte Atome, Ultrakalte Moleküle, Materiewellen Optik, Präzisionsmessungen, Metrologie
Q 57.90: Poster
Thursday, March 17, 2011, 16:30–19:30, P1
Towards a Portable Aluminum Optical Clock — •Jannes B. Wübbena, Sana Amairi, Olaf Mandel, Ivan V. Sherstov, and Piet O. Schmidt — QUEST Inst. for Exp. Quantum Metrology, PTB Braunschweig and Leibniz Univ. of Hannover, Germany
Optical Aluminum ion clocks were the first and until now the only clocks to achieve a fractional frequency inaccuracy lower than 1 × 10−17 [1]. This accuracy enables many applications, varying from frequency metrology to relativistic geodesy. Here we report on the status of a movable Aluminum ion clock that will allow transport to other sites for high accuracy frequency comparisons.
The 267 nm 1S0 ↔ 3P0 transition in 27Al+ is a superior candidate for frequency standards because it has a very narrow line width (8 mHz), no electric quadrupole shift and the lowest known blackbody radiation shift among all atomic species currently considered for clocks. Limitations arising from the lack of an accessible cooling and state detection transition in Aluminum will be overcome by trapping the 27Al+ together with a 40Ca+ ion. This "logic ion" is Doppler cooled and will sympathetically cool the Aluminum. Techniques developed for quantum information processing will be used to transfer the atomic state of the Al+ to the Ca+ where high efficiency electron-shelving detection is available.
[1] C.W. Chou et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 070802 (2010)