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Improved systematic evaluation of a strontium optical clock with uncertainty below $1\times 10^{-18}$

Atomic Physics 2025-09-18 v1

Abstract

We report a systematic uncertainty of 9.2×10199.2\times 10^{-19} for the USTC Sr1 optical lattice clock, achieving accuracy at the level required for the roadmap of the redefinition of the SI second. A finite-element model with {\it in situ}-validated, spatially-resolved chamber emissivity reduced blackbody radiation shift uncertainty to 6.3×10196.3\times 10^{-19}. Concurrently, an externally mounted lattice cavity combined with a larger beam waist suppressed density shifts. Enhanced lattice depth modulation consolidated lattice light shift uncertainty to 6.3×10196.3\times 10^{-19} by enabling simultaneous determination of key polarizabilities and magic wavelength. Magnetic shifts were resolved below 101810^{-18} via precision characterization of the second-order Zeeman coefficient. Supported by a crystalline-coated ultra-low-expansion cavity-stabilized laser and refined temperature control suppressing BBR fluctuations, the clock also achieves a frequency stability better than 1×10181\times10^{-18} at 30,000-s averaging time. These developments collectively establish a new benchmark in USTC Sr1 clock performance and pave the way for high-accuracy applications in metrology and fundamental physics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.13991,
  title  = {Improved systematic evaluation of a strontium optical clock with uncertainty below $1\times 10^{-18}$},
  author = {Zhi-Peng Jia and Jie Li and De-Quan Kong and Xiang Zhang and Hai-Wei Yu and Xiao-Yong Liu and Yu-Chen Zhang and Yuan-Bo Wang and Xian-Qing Zhu and Jia-Hao Zhang and Ming-Yi Zhu and Pei-Jun Feng and Xing-Yang Cui and Ping Xu and Xiao Jiang and Xiang-Pei Liu and Peng Liu and Han-Ning Dai and Yu-Ao Chen and Jian-Wei Pan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.13991},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

11 pages, 10 figures