Single-Atom Optical Clock with High Accuracy

W. H. Oskay, S. A. Diddams, E. A. Donley, T. M. Fortier, T. P. Heavner, L. Hollberg, W. M. Itano, S. R. Jefferts, M. J. Delaney, K. Kim, F. Levi, T. E. Parker, and J. C. Bergquist
Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 020801 – Published 14 July 2006

Abstract

For the past 50 years, atomic standards based on the frequency of the cesium ground-state hyperfine transition have been the most accurate time pieces in the world. We now report a comparison between the cesium fountain standard NIST-F1, which has been evaluated with an inaccuracy of about 4×1016, and an optical frequency standard based on an ultraviolet transition in a single, laser-cooled mercury ion for which the fractional systematic frequency uncertainty was below 7.2×1017. The absolute frequency of the transition was measured versus cesium to be 1 064 721 609 899 144.94 (97) Hz, with a statistically limited total fractional uncertainty of 9.1×1016, the most accurate absolute measurement of an optical frequency to date.

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  • Received 7 November 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.020801

©2006 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

W. H. Oskay*, S. A. Diddams, E. A. Donley, T. M. Fortier, T. P. Heavner, L. Hollberg, W. M. Itano, S. R. Jefferts, M. J. Delaney, K. Kim, F. Levi§, T. E. Parker, and J. C. Bergquist

  • Time and Frequency Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA

  • *Present address: Stanford Research Systems, 1290-C Reamwood Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94089, USA.
  • Also with Los Alamos National Laboratory, P-23 Physics Division, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
  • Permanent address: School of Mechanical Engineering, Yonsei University, 134 Shinchon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-749, Korea.
  • §Permanent address: IEN, Str. delle Cacce 91, 10135 Torino, Italy.
  • Electronic address: berky@boulder.nist.gov

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Vol. 97, Iss. 2 — 14 July 2006

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