Improved systematic evaluation of a strontium optical clock with uncertainty below $1\times 10^{-18}$
Abstract
We report a systematic uncertainty of 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 . 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 by enabling simultaneous determination of key polarizabilities and magic wavelength. Magnetic shifts were resolved below 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 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.
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