Hannover 2013 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 29: Poster: Ultra-cold atoms, ions and BEC (with Q)

A 29.6: Poster

Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 16:00–18:30, Empore Lichthof

Strontium in an Optical Lattice as a Portable Frequency Reference — •Lyndsie Smith, Ole Kock, Wei He, Huadon Cheng, Steven Johnson, Kai Kai, and Yeshpal Singh — School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston Park Road, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

The higher frequencies (approx. 10^15) of the atomic transitions enable a greater accuracy than the current microwave frequency (approx. 10^10) standard. Optical clocks have now achieved a performance significantly beyond that of the best microwave clocks, at a fractional frequency inaccuracy of 8.6 *10^-18. With the rapidly improving performance of optical clocks, in the future, most applications requiring the highest accuracy will require optical clocks. We are setting up an experiment aimed at a mobile frequency standard based on strontium (Sr) in a blue detuned optical lattice. We have 2D-3D MOT setup where initially cooled atoms in 2D are collected in the 3D MOT. Very recently we have realized our 3D MOT. We have also observed an effect of our 2D MOT on our 3D MOT. However, it should be mentioned that these are preliminary results and a thorough optimization as well as characterization will be done in due course of time. In addition to that we have designed a very compact and robust frequency distribution module for our European collaborative project, Space Optical Clock (SOC-2). An up to date progress on a compact and robust frequency standard experiment will be presented.