AIST: Achieved high operating rate operation of optical lattice clocks: for half a yea
ー 171 Yb optical lattice clock for half a year ー
-We report the long-term operation of an 171Yb optical lattice clock-
AIST:
We have developed the world’s most stable optical lattice clock and frequency standard.
Development overview:
Newly developed laser frequency / feedback technology realizes unmanned operation of optical lattice clocks
Achieved high operating rate operation of 80% or more in 185 days of optical lattice clock
Continuing high utilization rate, contributing to International Atomic Time, aiming to redefine “seconds”
AIST: Yokohama National University
For the first time in the world, we have achieved “high operating rate operation of optical lattice clocks over a long period of time”.
Frequency auto relock function:
Conventionally, in the operation of an optical lattice clock, “the person in charge for restarting the interruption device needs to be in the laboratory”.
This time, we have newly developed the laser frequency auto-relock technology.
With frequency auto relock function
Without interruption of laser frequency control
You can now drive unmanned.
It is also possible to remotely monitor the status of the optical lattice clock from outside the laboratory.
If a problem occurs with the optical lattice clock, an automatic email will be sent to notify you of the abnormality.
Unmanned operation of optical lattice clock:
By introducing it into the frequency stabilization system, unmanned operation of the optical lattice clock is realized.
From October 2019 to March 2020, we achieved a high operating rate of 80% or more in half a year.
Details of the technology will be published in the academic journal Metrologia, which will be published on November 2, 2020 (Coordinated Universal Time).
https://www.aist.go.jp/aist_j/press_release/pr2020/pr20201103/pr20201103.html
the nearly continuous operation of an 171Yb optical lattice clock for half a year
Abstract
Optical lattice clocks
surpass primary Cs microwave clocks in frequency stability and accuracy, and are promising candidates for a redefinition of the second in the International System of Units (SI).However,
the robustness of optical lattice clockshas not yet reached a level comparable to that of Cs fountain clocks which contribute to International Atomic Time (TAI) by the nearly continuous operation.
In this paper,
we report the long-term operation of an 171Yb optical lattice clockwith a coverage of 80.3% for half a year including uptimes of 93.9% for the first 24 days and 92.6% for the last 35 days.
This enables a nearly dead-time-free frequency comparison of the optical lattice clock with TAI over months,
which provides a link to the SI second with an uncertainty of low 10−16.
By using this link,
the absolute frequency of the 1S$_{0}-^{3}$P0 clock transition of 171Ybis measured as 518 295 836 590 863.54(26) Hz with a fractional uncertainty of 5.0 × 10−16.
This value is in agreement with the recommended frequency of 171Yb as a secondary representation of the second.
IOPscience