Prospects of a thousand-ion Sn²⁺ Coulomb-crystal clock with sub-10^-19 inaccuracy.

ABSTRACT: Optical atomic clocks are the most accurate and precise measurement devices of any kind, enabling advances in international timekeeping, Earth science, fundamental physics, and more. However, there is a fundamental tradeoff between accuracy and precision, where higher precision is achieved by using more atoms, but this comes at the cost of larger interactions between the atoms that limit the accuracy. Here, we propose a many-ion optical atomic clock based on three-dimensional Coulomb crystals of order one thousand Sn²⁺ ions confined in a linear RF Paul trap with the potential to overcome this limitation. Sn²⁺ has a unique combination of features that is not available in previously considered ions: a ¹S₀ ↔  ³P₀ clock transiti

SUBMITTER: Leibrandt DR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11229506 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature