A Fermi-degenerate three-dimensional optical lattice clock

Area of Science:

• Atomic physics
• Quantum metrology
• Optical clocks

Background:

• Strontium optical lattice clocks offer high precision by interrogating millions of atoms.
• Atomic interactions limit clock accuracy due to density-dependent frequency shifts.
• Previous methods faced a trade-off between clock stability and accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a scalable solution for improving strontium optical lattice clock accuracy.
• To mitigate density-dependent frequency shifts caused by atomic interactions.
• To achieve higher precision in atomic clock comparisons.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a degenerate Fermi gas in a 3D optical lattice.
• Leveraging high, correlated atomic density to minimize on-site interaction shifts.
• Performing synchronous clock comparisons between lattice regions.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated a method to resolve contact interactions, reducing their contribution to clock shifts.
• Achieved clock shift contributions orders of magnitude lower than in prior experiments.
• Obtained a measurement precision of 5 × 10^-19 in 1 hour.

Conclusions:

• The 3D optical lattice with a degenerate Fermi gas provides a scalable solution for high-accuracy atomic clocks.
• This approach effectively guards against on-site interaction shifts, overcoming previous limitations.
• The demonstrated precision represents a significant advancement in optical clock technology.