Optical lattice clock
Reloj óptico de red
- Date
- 2003 · confidence medium
- Place
- Tokyo, Japan
- Credited to
- Hidetoshi Katori
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A clock with thousands of neutral atoms trapped in a lattice of laser light at a 'magic wavelength' that does not perturb the transition, measured at once at an optical frequency. It is about a thousand times more precise than a caesium clock and is shaping up as the future definition of the second.
Katori proposed the idea in 2001-2003 (2003 paper); the first operating strontium clocks were measured in 2005-2006 in Tokyo and at JILA. It is placed in Tokyo because of the University of Tokyo; it is an attribution to a group.
What it led to
- strontium and ytterbium lattice clocks with accuracy of 10⁻¹⁸
- relativistic geodesy: measuring gravitational potential with clocks
- a proposal to redefine the second in the 21st century