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Register a new userMolecular lattice clock with long vibrational coherence
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Atomic lattice clocks have spurred numerous ideas for tests of fundamental physics, detection of general relativistic effects, and studies of interacting many-body systems. On the other hand, molecular structure and dynamics offer rich energy scales that are at the heart of new protocols in precision measurement and quantum information science. Here we demonstrate a fundamentally distinct type of lattice clock that is based on vibrations in diatomic molecules, and present coherent Rabi oscillations between weakly and deeply bound molecules that persist for 10s of milliseconds. This control is made possible by a state-insensitive magic lattice trap that weakly couples to molecular vibronic resonances and enhances the coherence time between molecules and light by several orders of magnitude. The achieved quality factor $Q=8times10^{11}$ results from 30-Hz narrow resonances for a 25-THz clock transition in Sr$_2$. Our technique of extended coherent manipulation is applicable to long-term storage of quantum information in qubits based on ultracold polar molecules, while the vibrational clock enables precise probes of interatomic forces, tests of Newtonian gravitation at ultrashort range, and model-independent searches for electron-to-proton mass ratio variations.
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We develop differential measurement protocols that circumvent the laser noise limit in the stability of optical clock comparisons by synchronous probing of two clocks using phase-locked local oscillators. This allows for probe times longer than the laser coherence time, avoids the Dick effect, and supports Heisenberg-limited measurement precision. We present protocols for such frequency comparisons and develop numerical simulations of the protocols with realistic noise sources. These methods provide a route to reduce frequency ratio measurement durations by more than an order of magnitude.
We report on an improved systematic evaluation of the JILA SrI optical lattice clock, achieving a nearly identical systematic uncertainty compared to the previous strontium accuracy record set by the JILA SrII optical lattice clock (OLC) at $2.1 times 10^{-18}$. This improves upon the previous evaluation of the JILA SrI optical lattice clock in 2013, and we achieve a more than twenty-fold reduction in systematic uncertainty to $2.0 times 10^{-18}$. A seven-fold improvement in clock stability, reaching $4.8 times 10^{-17}/sqrt{tau}$ for an averaging time $tau$ in seconds, allows the clock to average to its systematic uncertainty in under 10 minutes. We improve the systematic uncertainty budget in several important ways. This includes a novel scheme for taming blackbody radiation-induced frequency shifts through active stabilization and characterization of the thermal environment, inclusion of higher-order terms in the lattice light shift, and updated atomic coefficients. Along with careful control of other systematic effects, we achieve low temporal drift of systematic offsets and high uptime of the clock. We additionally present an improved evaluation of the second order Zeeman coefficient that is applicable to all Sr optical lattice clocks. These improvements in performance have enabled several important studies including frequency ratio measurements through the Boulder Area Clock Optical Network (BACON), a high precision comparison with the JILA 3D lattice clock, a demonstration of a new all-optical time scale combining SrI and a cryogenic silicon cavity, and a high sensitivity search for ultralight scalar dark matter.
We demonstrate the absence of a DC Stark shift in an ytterbium optical lattice clock. Stray electric fields are suppressed through the introduction of an in-vacuum Faraday shield. Still, the effectiveness of the shielding must be experimentally assessed. Such diagnostics are accomplished by applying high voltage to six electrodes, which are grounded in normal operation to form part of the Faraday shield. Our measurements place a constraint on the DC Stark shift at the $10^{-20}$ level, in units of the clock frequency. Moreover, we discuss a potential source of error in strategies to precisely measure or cancel non-zero DC Stark shifts, attributed to field gradients coupled with the finite spatial extent of the lattice-trapped atoms. With this consideration, we find that Faraday shielding, complemented with experimental validation, provides both a practically appealing and effective solution to the problem of DC Stark shifts in optical lattice clocks.
We study ultracold collisions in fermionic ytterbium by precisely measuring the energy shifts they impart on the atoms internal clock states. Exploiting Fermi statistics, we uncover p-wave collisions, in both weakly and strongly interacting regimes. With the higher density afforded by two-dimensional lattice confinement, we demonstrate that strong interactions can lead to a novel suppression of this collision shift. In addition to reducing the systematic errors of lattice clocks, this work has application to quantum information and quantum simulation with alkaline-earth atoms.
Optical clocks benefit from tight atomic confinement enabling extended interrogation times as well as Doppler- and recoil-free operation. However, these benefits come at the cost of frequency shifts that, if not properly controlled, may degrade clock accuracy. Numerous theoretical studies have predicted optical lattice clock frequency shifts that scale nonlinearly with trap depth. To experimentally observe and constrain these shifts in an $^{171}$Yb optical lattice clock, we construct a lattice enhancement cavity that exaggerates the light shifts. We observe an atomic temperature that is proportional to the optical trap depth, fundamentally altering the scaling of trap-induced light shifts and simplifying their parametrization. We identify an operational magic wavelength where frequency shifts are insensitive to changes in trap depth. These measurements and scaling analysis constitute an essential systematic characterization for clock operation at the $10^{-18}$ level and beyond.
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