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Updated: May 29, 2026

A Simple Dewar/Cryostat for Thermally Equilibrating Samples at Known Temperatures for Accurate Cryogenic Luminescence Measurements
Published on: July 19, 2016
Rydberg spectroscopy in an optical lattice: blackbody thermometry for atomic clocks
Vitali D Ovsiannikov1, Andrei Derevianko, Kurt Gibble
1Physics Department, Voronezh State University, Universitetskaya pl. 1, 394006, Voronezh, Russia.
Abstract:
We show that optical spectroscopy of Rydberg states can provide accurate in situ thermometry at room temperature. Transitions from a metastable state to Rydberg states with principal quantum numbers of 25-30 have 200 times larger fractional frequency sensitivities to blackbody radiation than the strontium clock transition. We demonstrate that magic-wavelength lattices exist for both strontium and ytterbium transitions between the metastable and Rydberg states. Frequency measurements of Rydberg transitions with 10(-16) accuracy provide 10 mK resolution and yield a blackbody uncertainty for the clock transition of 10(-18).
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