Optical clocks and their applications

Technologies conference Ultracold alkaline-earth elements (and like), e.g. strontium (ytterbium), have emerged as crucial platforms for various applications including fundamental science, optical clocks, detection of gravitational waves, dark energy and dark matter, quantum information and quantum computation.

These elements have two electrons in their valence band, giving rise to rich internal degrees of freedom. The existence of narrow transitions in these elements plays a central role in most of the above applications; for instance, strontium has an mHz transition which is used for clock spectroscopy in optical clocks.  Optical clocks have reached uncertainty and stability better than 10- 18, implying that one can start to observe relativistic effects if one elevates a clock only by a cm. 

In our lab, we work with ultracold strontium and ytterbium atoms. In this talk, I will introduce neutral optical lattice clocks with a particular focus on transportable clocks. Within an EU consortium, the first transportable optical lattice based on ultracold strontium atoms was realised. This setup has achieved a precision of 3x10-18. In the follow-up, we have been working on more compact and field-deployable setups. I will also discuss their applications, including the redefinition of second, telecom and radars.

Prof. Yeshpal Singh, Professor of Quantum Science and Innovation/ Head of Innovation at the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, UK