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Register a new userAtomic fountains and optical clocks at SYRTE: status and perspectives
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In this article, we report on the work done with the LNE-SYRTE atomic clock ensemble during the last 10 years. We cover progress made in atomic fountains and in their application to timekeeping. We also cover the development of optical lattice clocks based on strontium and on mercury. We report on tests of fundamental physical laws made with these highly accurate atomic clocks. We also report on work relevant to a future possible redefinition of the SI second.
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We give an overview of the work done with the Laboratoire National de Metrologie et dEssais-Syst`emes de Reference Temps-Espace (LNE-SYRTE) fountain ensemble during the last five years. After a description of the clock ensemble, comprising three fountains, FO1, FO2, and FOM, and the newest developments, we review recent studies of several systematic frequency shifts. This includes the distributed cavity phase shift, which we evaluate for the FO1 and FOM fountains, applying the techniques of our recent work on FO2. We also report calculations of the microwave lensing frequency shift for the three fountains, review the status of the blackbody radiation shift, and summarize recent experimental work to control microwave leakage and spurious phase perturbations. We give current accuracy budgets. We also describe several applications in time and frequency metrology: fountain comparisons, calibrations of the international atomic time, secondary representation of the SI second based on the 87Rb hyperfine frequency, absolute measurements of optical frequencies, tests of the T2L2 satellite laser link, and review fundamental physics applications of the LNE-SYRTE fountain ensemble. Finally, we give a summary of the tests of the PHARAO cold atom space clock performed using the FOM transportable fountain.
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 standards based on optical transitions in ultra-cold neutral atoms and trapped ions. As a result, todays best performing atomic clocks tick at an optical rate and allow scientists to perform high-resolution measurements with a precision approaching a few parts in $10^{18}$. This paper reviews the history and the state of the art in optical-clock research and addresses the implementation of optical clocks in a possible future redefinition of the SI second as well as in tests of fundamental physics.
The pursuit of ever more precise measures of time and frequency is likely to lead to the eventual redefinition of the second in terms of an optical atomic transition. To ensure continuity with the current definition, based on a microwave transition between hyperfine levels in ground-state $^{133}$Cs, it is necessary to measure the absolute frequency of candidate standards, which is done by comparing against a primary cesium reference. A key verification of this process can be achieved by performing a loop closure$-$comparing frequency ratios derived from absolute frequency measurements against ratios determined from direct optical comparisons. We measure the $^1$S$_0!rightarrow^3$P$_0$ transition of $^{171}$Yb by comparing the clock frequency to an international frequency standard with the aid of a maser ensemble serving as a flywheel oscillator. Our measurements consist of 79 separate runs spanning eight months, and we determine the absolute frequency to be 518 295 836 590 863.71(11) Hz, the uncertainty of which is equivalent to a fractional frequency of $2.1times10^{-16}$. This absolute frequency measurement, the most accurate reported for any transition, allows us to close the Cs-Yb-Sr-Cs frequency measurement loop at an uncertainty of $<$3$times10^{-16}$, limited by the current realization of the SI second. We use these measurements to tighten the constraints on variation of the electron-to-proton mass ratio, $mu=m_e/m_p$. Incorporating our measurements with the entire record of Yb and Sr absolute frequency measurements, we infer a coupling coefficient to gravitational potential of $k_mathrm{mu}=(-1.9pm 9.4)times10^{-7}$ and a drift with respect to time of $frac{dotmu}{mu}=(5.3 pm 6.5)times10^{-17}/$yr.
We report an observation of the weak $6^{1}$S$_{0}$-$6^3$P$_0$ transition in $^{171,173}$Yb as an important step to establish Yb as a primary candidate for future optical frequency standards, and to open up a new approach for qubits using the $^{1}$S$_{0}$ and $^3$P$_0$ states of Yb atoms in an optical lattice.
Probing an atomic resonance without disturbing it is an ubiquitous issue in physics. This problem is critical in high-accuracy spectroscopy or for the next generation of atomic optical clocks. Ultra-high resolution frequency metrology requires sophisticated interrogation schemes and robust protocols handling pulse length errors and residual frequency detuning offsets . This review reports recent progress and perspective in such schemes, using sequences of composite laser-pulses tailored in pulse duration, frequency and phase, inspired by NMR techniques and quantum information processing. After a short presentation of Rabi technique and NMR-like composite pulses allowing efficient compensation of electromagnetic field perturbations to achieve robust population transfers, composite laser-pulses are investigated within Ramseys method of separated oscillating fields in order to generate non-linear compensation of probe-induced frequency shifts. Laser-pulses protocols such as Hyper-Ramsey (HR), Modified Hyper-Ramsey (MHR), Generalized Hyper-Ramsey (GHR) and hybrid schemes are reviewed. These techniques provide excellent protection against both probe induced light-shift perturbations and laser intensity variations. More sophisticated schemes generating synthetic frequency-shifts are presented. They allow to reduce or completely eliminate imperfect correction of probe-induced frequency-shifts even in presence of decoherence due to the laser line-width. Finally, two universal protocols are presented which provide complete elimination of probe-induced frequency shifts in the general case where both decoherence and relaxation dissipation effects are present by using exact analytic expressions for phase-shifts and the clock frequency detuning. These techniques might be applied to atomic, molecular and nuclear frequency metrology, mass spectrometry as well as precision spectroscopy.
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