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Demonstration of a time scale based on a stable optical carrier

Atomic Physics 2019-10-22 v1 Optics

Abstract

We demonstrate a time scale based on a phase stable optical carrier that accumulates an estimated time error of 48±9448\pm94 ps over 34 days of operation. This all-optical time scale is formed with a cryogenic silicon cavity exhibiting improved long-term stability and an accurate 87^{87}Sr lattice clock. We show that this new time scale architecture outperforms existing microwave time scales, even when they are steered to optical frequency standards. Our analysis indicates that this time scale is capable of reaching a stability below 1×10171\times10^{-17} after a few months of averaging, making timekeeping at the 101810^{-18} level a realistic prospect.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1907.03184,
  title  = {Demonstration of a time scale based on a stable optical carrier},
  author = {William R. Milner and John M. Robinson and Colin J. Kennedy and Tobias Bothwell and Dhruv Kedar and Dan G. Matei and Thomas Legero and Uwe Sterr and Fritz Riehle and Holly Leopardi and Tara M. Fortier and Jeffrey A. Sherman and Judah Levine and Jian Yao and Jun Ye and Eric Oelker},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.03184},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

13 pages, 12 Figures