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Displaying 1 - 25 of 108

Fundamental Physics with a State-of-the-Art Optical Clock in Space

July 21, 2022
Author(s)
Andrei Derevianko, Kurt Gibble, Leo Hollberg, Nathan R. Newbury, Chris Oates, Marianna Safranova, Laura Sinclair
Recent advances in optical atomic clocks and optical time transfer have enabled new possibilities in precision metrology for both tests of fundamental physics and timing applications. Here we describe a space mission concept that would place a state-of-the

Advanced Tests of Fundamental Physics with State-of-the-Art Optical Clocks/Two-Way Time Links in Space

December 23, 2021
Author(s)
Chris Oates, Nathan R. Newbury, Laura Sinclair, Leo Hollberg, Andrei Derevianko, Marianna Safronova, Nan Yu, Kurt Gibble
Recent advances in optical atomic clocks and optical time transfer have enabled new possibilities in precision metrology for both tests of fundamental physics and timing applications. Space offers both the potential to vary significantly the gravitational

Fundamental Physics with a State-of-the-Art Optical Clock in Space

December 23, 2021
Author(s)
Andrei Derevianko, Kurt Gibble, Leo Hollberg, Nathan R. Newbury, Chris Oates, Laura Sinclair, Nan Yu
Recent advances in optical atomic clocks and optical time transfer have enabled new possibilities in precision metrology for both tests of fundamental physics and timing applications. Here we describe a space mission concept that would place a state-of-the

SAGE: A proposal for a Space Atomic Gravity Explorer

November 15, 2019
Author(s)
Nathan R. Newbury, Chris Oates, Jun Ye, Guglielmo Tino, A Bassi, G Bianco, K Bongs, L Cacciapuoti, M. L. Chiofalo, X Chen, A Derevianko, W Ertme, N Gaaloul, Patrick Gill, P. W. Graham, J. M. Hogan, L Iess, Mark Kasevich, H Katori, Carsten Klempt, X Lu, Long-Sheng Ma, H Muller, A Peters, N Poli, Rasel E, G Rosi, A Roura, C Salomon, S Schiller, W Sleich, D Schlippert, F Schreck, C Schubert, Sorrentino F, Uwe Sterr, J. W. Thomsen, G Vallone, F Vetrano, P Villoresi, W von Klitzing, P Wolf, Nan Yu, M.S. Zhan
The proposed mission \Space Atomic Gravity Explorer (SAGE) has the scientifi c objective to investigate gravitational waves, dark matter, and other fundamental aspects of gravity as well as the connection between gravitational physics and quantum physics

Ramsey-Borde Matter-Wave Interferometry for Laser Frequency Stabilization at 10 -16 Frequency Instability and Below

August 13, 2019
Author(s)
Judith B. Olson, Todd Sheerin, Holly Leopardi, Roger C. Brown, Richard W. Fox, Rick Stoner, Tara M. Fortier, Christopher W. Oates, Andrew D. Ludlow
We demonstrate Ramsey-Borde (RB) atom interferometry for high performance laser stabilization with fractional frequency instability −16 for timescales between 10 and 1000s. The RB spectroscopy laser interrogates two counterpropagating 40Ca beams on the 1S

Towards the optical second: verifying optical clocks at the SI limit

April 11, 2019
Author(s)
William F. McGrew, Xiaogang Zhang, Robert J. Fasano, Holly Leopardi, Daniele Nicolodi, Kyle P. Beloy, Jian Yao, Jeffrey A. Sherman, Stefan A. Schaeffer, Joshua J. Savory, Stefania Romisch, Christopher W. Oates, Thomas E. Parker, Tara M. Fortier, Andrew D. Ludlow
The pursuit of ever more precise measures of time and frequency motivates redefinition of the second in terms of an optical atomic transition. To ensure continuity with the current definition, based on the microwave hyperfine transition in 133Cs, it is

Ultra-stable optical clock with two cold-atom ensembles

January 1, 2017
Author(s)
Marco Schioppo, Roger Brown, Will McGrew, Nathan M. Hinkley, Robert J. Fasano, Kyle Beloy, Gianmaria Milani, Daniele Nicolodi, Jeffrey Sherman, Nate B. Phillips, Christopher W. Oates, Andrew Ludlow
Atomic clocks based on optical transitions are the most stable, and therefore precise, timekeepers available. These clocks operate by alternating intervals of atomic interrogation with ‘dead' time required for quantum state preparation and readout. This

Optical Lattice Clocks

January 1, 2015
Author(s)
Andrew D. Ludlow, Christopher W. Oates
Here we introduce and give a basic description of optical lattice clocks. We also briefly describe recent advances in these atomic frequency standards, looking to future work and applications.

Atomic Clock with 1x10 -18 Room-Temperature Blackbody Stark Uncertainty

December 31, 2014
Author(s)
Kyle P. Beloy, Nathan M. Hinkley, Nate B. Phillips, Jeffrey A. Sherman, Marco Schioppo, John H. Lehman, Ari D. Feldman, Leonard M. Hanssen, Christopher W. Oates, Andrew D. Ludlow
The Stark shift due to blackbody radiation (BBR) is a key factor limiting the performance of many atomic frequency standards, with the BBR environment inside the clock apparatus being difficult to characterize at a high level of precision. Here we

Optical Atomic Clocks

December 1, 2013
Author(s)
Christopher W. Oates, N Poli, P. Gill, G.M. Tino
In the last ten years extraordinary results in time and frequency metrology have been demonstrated. Frequency stabilization techniques for continuous wave lasers and femto-second optical frequency combs have enabled a rapid development of frequency

An atomic clock with 10 -18 instability

September 13, 2013
Author(s)
Andrew D. Ludlow, Nathan M. Hinkley, Jeffrey A. Sherman, Nate B. Phillips, Marco Schioppo, Nathan D. Lemke, Kyle P. Beloy, M Pizzocaro, Christopher W. Oates
Atomic clocks have been transformational in science and technology, leading to innovations such as global positioning, advanced communications, and tests of fundamental constant variation. Next-generation optical atomic clocks can extend the capability of

Determination of the 5d6s 3D1 state lifetime and blackbody radiation clock shift in Yb

November 29, 2012
Author(s)
Kyle P. Beloy, Jeffrey A. Sherman, Nathan D. Lemke, Nathan M. Hinkley, Christopher W. Oates, Andrew D. Ludlow
The Stark shift of the ytterbium optical clock transition due to room temperature blackbody radiation is dominated by a static Stark effect, which was recently measured to high accuracy [J. A. Sherman et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 153002 (2012)]. However

Sub-femtosecond absolute timing jitter with a 10 GHz hybrid photonic-microwave oscillator

June 7, 2012
Author(s)
Tara M. Fortier, Craig W. Nelson, Archita Hati, Franklyn J. Quinlan, Jennifer A. Taylor, Haifeng (. Jiang, Chin-Wen Chou, Till P. Rosenband, Nathan D. Lemke, Andrew D. Ludlow, David A. Howe, Christopher W. Oates, Scott A. Diddams
We present an optical-electronic approach to generating microwave signals with high spectral purity. By overcoming shot noise and operating near fundamental thermal limits, we demonstrate 10 GHz signals that have timing deviation from an ideal periodic

A high stability optical frequency reference based on thermal calcium atoms

May 24, 2012
Author(s)
Richard W. Fox, Jeffrey Sherman, W. Douglas, Judith B. Olson, Andrew Ludlow, Christopher W. Oates
Here we report an imprecision below 10 -14 with a simple, compact optical frequency standard based upon thermal calcium atoms. Using a Ramsey-Borde spectrometer we excite features with linewidths

A hybrid 10 GHz photonic-microwave oscillator with sub-femtosecond absolute timing jitter

May 24, 2012
Author(s)
Tara M. Fortier, Craig W. Nelson, Archita Hati, Franklyn J. Quinlan, Jennifer A. Taylor, Haifeng (. Jiang, Chin-Wen Chou, Nathan D. Lemke, Andrew D. Ludlow, David A. Howe, Christopher W. Oates, Scott A. Diddams
We demonstrate a 10 GHz hybrid oscillator comprised of a phase stabilized optical frequency comb divider and a room temperature dielectric sapphire oscillator. Characterization of the 10 GHz microwave signal via comparison of two independent hybrid

Blackbody effects in the Yb optical lattice clock

May 24, 2012
Author(s)
Andrew D. Ludlow, Jeffrey A. Sherman, Nathan D. Lemke, Kyle P. Beloy, Nathan M. Hinkley, M. Pizzocaro, Richard W. Fox, Christopher W. Oates
We report a high accuracy measurement of the differential static polarizability for the clock transition in a Yb lattice clock, a key parameter for determining the blackbody BBR) shift of this transition. We further report efforts to determine the 6s5d3D1

High-Accuracy Measurement of Atomic Polarizability in an Optical Lattice Clock

April 13, 2012
Author(s)
Jeffrey A. Sherman, Nathan D. Lemke, Nathan M. Hinkley, M. Pizzocaro, Richard W. Fox, Andrew D. Ludlow, Christopher W. Oates
Presently, the Stark effect contributes the largest source of uncertainty in a ytterbium optical atomic clock through blackbody radiation. By employing an ultracold, trapped atomic ensemble and high stability optical clock, we characterize the quadratic

Cold-collision-shift cancelation and inelastic scattering in a Yb optical lattice clock

November 28, 2011
Author(s)
Andrew D. Ludlow, Nathan D. Lemke, Jeffrey A. Sherman, Christopher W. Oates, G. Quemener, J. von Stecher, A.M. Rey
Recently, ρ-wave cold collisions were shown to dominate the density-dependent shift of the clock transition frequency in a 171Yb optical lattice clock. Here we demonstrate that by operating such a system at the proper excitation fraction, the cold

p-Wave Cold Collisions in an Optical Lattice Clock

September 2, 2011
Author(s)
Nathan D. Lemke, Andrew D. Ludlow, J. von Stecher, Jeffrey A. Sherman, A.M. Rey, Christopher W. Oates
State-of-the-art optical clocks with neutral atoms employ an optical lattice to tightly confine the atoms, enabling high-resolution spectroscopy and the potential for high-accuracy timekeeping. Interrogating many atoms simultaneously facilitates high

Ultralow phase noise microwave generation with an Er:fiber-based optical frequency divider

August 15, 2011
Author(s)
Franklyn J. Quinlan, Tara M. Fortier, Matthew S. Kirchner, Jennifer A. Taylor, Michael J. Thorpe, Nathan D. Lemke, Andrew D. Ludlow, Yanyi Jiang, Christopher W. Oates, Scott A. Diddams
We present an optical frequency divider based on a 200 MHz repetition rate Er:fiber mode-locked laser that, when locked to a stable optical frequency reference, generates microwave signals with absolute phase noise that is equal to or better than cryogenic

Improving the stability and accuracy of the Yb optical lattice clock

July 31, 2011
Author(s)
Andrew D. Ludlow, Yanyi Jiang, Nathan D. Lemke, Jeffrey A. Sherman, J. von Stecher, Richard W. Fox, Long-Sheng Ma, A.M. Rey, Christopher W. Oates
We report results for improving the stability and uncertainty of the NIST $^{171}$Yb lattice clock. The stability improvements derive from a significant reduction of the optical Dick effect, while the uncertainty improvements focus on improved

Generation of Ultrastable microwaves via optical frequency division

June 26, 2011
Author(s)
Tara Fortier, Matthew S. Kirchner, Jennifer A. Taylor, James C. Bergquist, Yanyi Jiang, Andrew Ludlow, Christopher W. Oates, Till P. Rosenband, Scott Diddams, Franklyn Quinlan, Nathan D. Lemke
A frequency-stabilized femtosecond laser optical frequency comb serves as a source of microwave signals having very low close-to-carrier phase noise. Comparison of two independent systems shows combined absolute phase noise of -100 dBc/Hz at an offset of 1

Making optical atomic clocks more stable with 10 -16 level laser stabilization

January 23, 2011
Author(s)
Andrew D. Ludlow, Yanyi Jiang, Nathan D. Lemke, Richard W. Fox, Jeffrey A. Sherman, Long-Sheng Ma, Christopher W. Oates
The superb precision of an atomic clock is derived from its stability. Atomic clocks based on optical (rather than microwave) frequencies are attractive because of their potential for high stability, which scales with operational frequency. Nevertheless

Hyper-Ramsey spectroscopy of optical clock transitions

July 22, 2010
Author(s)
Christopher W. Oates, V. I. Yudin, A. V. Taichenachev, Zeb Barber, Nathan D. Lemke, Andrew D. Ludlow, U Sterr, Ch. Lisdat, F Riehle
We present nonstandard optical Ramsey schemes that use pulses individually tailored in duration, phase and frequency to cancel spurious frequency shifts related to the excitation itself. In particular, the field shifts and their uncertainties can be

Compensation of Field-Induced Frequency Shifts in Ramsey Spectroscopy of Optical Clock Transitions

December 10, 2009
Author(s)
A. V. Taichenachev, V. I. Yudin, Christopher W. Oates, Barber W. Zeb, Nathan D. Lemke, Andrew Ludlow, U Sterr, Ch. Lisdat, F Reihle
We develop a modified version of Ramsey spectroscopy that uses an additional frequency shift to compensate frequency shifts induced by the excitation itself. In its simplest realization, this method uses a small step of the probe frequency during the two