Related papers: Performance of a 229 Thorium solid-state nuclear c…
The thorium nucleus with mass number $A=229$ has attracted much interest because its extremely low lying first excited isomeric state at about $8$eV opens the possibility for the development of a nuclear clock. However, neither the exact…
A process of the decay of the anomalously low lying nuclear isomer $^{229m}$Th$(3/2^+,8.28 \pm 0.17$ eV) in the Thorium anion (Th$^-$) via the internal conversion (IC) channel is studied. We show that the half life of the nuclear isomer in…
The process of internal conversion from excited electronic states is investigated theoretically for the case of the vacuum-ultraviolet nuclear transition of $^{229}{\mathrm Th}$. Due to the very low transition energy, the $^{229}{\mathrm…
A comparative vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy study conducted at ISOLDE-CERN of the radiative decay of the $^{229m}$Th nuclear clock isomer embedded in different host materials is reported. The ratio of the number of radiative decay photons…
We study a wide range of neutral atoms and ions suitable for ultra-precise atomic optical clocks with naturally suppressed black body radiation shift of clock transition frequency. Calculations show that scalar polarizabilities of clock…
We identify Ba$^{4+}$ (Te-like) as a promising candidate for a high-accuracy optical clock. The lowest-lying electronic states are part of a $^3P_J$ fine structure manifold with anomalous energy ordering, being non-monotonic in $J$. We…
An inner-shell orbital clock transition $^1S_0 \leftrightarrow 4f^{13}5d6s^2 \: (J=2)$ in neutral ytterbium atoms has attracted much attention as a new optical frequency standard as well as a highly sensitive probe for several new physics…
The stability of an optical atomic clock is a critical figure of merit for almost all clock applications. To this end, much optical atomic clock research has focused on reducing clock instability by increasing the atom number, lengthening…
We present experimental work for improved atom loading in the optical molasses of a caesium fountain clock, employing a low-velocity intense source of atoms (LVIS) [Lu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3331 (1996)], which we modified by adding a…
We report on the development and performance evaluation of an ultra-stable clock laser for an $\rm ^{27}Al^+$ optical clock. The thermal noise limited ultra-stable laser is developed based on a 30 cm long ultra-stable cavity. Three…
We report a single-ion optical clock based on the 4S_1/2-3D_5/2 transition of the 40Ca+ ion, operated in a liquid nitrogen cryogenic environment,achieving a total systematic uncertainty of 4.4E-19. We employ a refined temperature evaluation…
Integrating precise, stable, ultra-low noise visible light lasers into atomic systems is critical for advancing quantum information sciences and improving scalability and portability. Trapped ions are a leading approach for high-fidelity…
We observe a weakly allowed optical transition of atomic ytterbium from the ground state to the metastable state $4f^{13}5d6s^2 \: (J=2)$ for all five bosonic and two fermionic isotopes with resolved Zeeman and hyperfine structures. This…
We present a spectroscopy scheme for the 7-kHz-wide 689-nm intercombination line of strontium. We rely on shelving detection, where electrons are first excited to a metastable state by the spectroscopy laser before their state is probed…
Optical atomic clocks using highly-charged ions hold an intriguing promise of metrology at the 19th significant figure. Here we study transitions within the $4f^{12}$ ground-state electronic configuration of highly charged ions. We consider…
Additional clock transitions of ytterbium atoms based on inner-shell orbital transition could benefit the search for new physics beyond the Standard Model. Observation of these transitions with high resolution is a prerequisite for making…
We stabilise a microwave oscillator at 9.6 GHz to an optical clock laser at 344 THz by using a fibre-based femtosecond laser frequency comb as a transfer oscillator. With a second frequency comb we measure independently the instability of…
Optical clocks are the apotheosis of precision measurement, but they require frequent maintenance by scientists. The supporting laser systems are a particularly demanding component of these instruments. To reduce complexity and increase…
We describe an optical atomic clock based on quantum-logic spectroscopy of the $^1$S$_0$ $\leftrightarrow$ $^3$P$_0$ transition in $^{27}$Al$^{+}$ with a systematic uncertainty of ${9.4 \times 10^{-19}}$ and a frequency stability of…
Current state-of-the-art frequency standards are passive optical atomic clocks where the frequency of an optical resonator is stabilized to a narrow atomic transition. Passive clocks have achieved unprecedented stabilities of 6.6 x 10--19…