Abstract
Blackbody radiation (BBR) shifts of the clock transition in the divalent atoms Mg, Ca, Sr, and Yb are evaluated. The dominant electric-dipole contributions are computed using accurate relativistic many-body techniques of atomic structure. At room temperatures, the resulting uncertainties in the BBR shifts are large and substantially affect the projected fractional accuracy of the optical-lattice-based clocks. A peculiarity of these clocks is that the characteristic BBR wavelength is comparable to the fine-structure intervals. To evaluate relevant and contributions, a theory of multipolar BBR shifts is developed. The resulting corrections, although presently masked by the uncertainties in the contribution, are required at the accuracy goal.
- Received 13 February 2006
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.74.020502
©2006 American Physical Society