A combined magnetic field stabilization system for improving the stability of 40Ca^(+) optical clock

Future applications of portable40Ca^(+)optical clocks require reliable magnetic field stabilization to improve frequency stability, which can be achieved by implementing an active and passive magnetic field noise suppression system. On the one hand, we have optimized the magnetic shielding performance of the portable optical clock by reducing its apertures and optimizing its geometry;on the other hand, we have introduced an active magnetic field noise suppression system to further suppress the magnetic field noise experienced by the ions. These efforts reduced the ambient magnetic field noise by about 10000 times, significantly reduced the linewidth of the clock transition spectrum, improved the stability of the portable40Ca+optical clock, and created the conditions for using portable optical clocks in non-laboratory magnetic field environments. This active magnetic field suppression scheme has the advantages of simple installation and wide applicability.

A cryogenic radio-frequency ion trap for a 40Ca^(+) optical clock

A liquid-nitrogen cryogenic40Ca^(+)optical clock is presented that is designed to greatly reduce the blackbody radiation(BBR) shift. The ion trap, the electrodes and the in-vacuum BBR shield are installed under the liquid-nitrogen container,keeping the ions in a cryogenic environment at liquid-nitrogen temperature. Compared with the first design in our previous work, many improvements have been made to increase the performance. The liquid-nitrogen maintenance time has been increased by about three times by increasing the volume of the liquid-nitrogen container;the trap position recovery time after refilling the liquid-nitrogen container has been decreased more than three times by using a better fixation scheme in the liquid-nitrogen container;and the magnetic field noise felt by the ions has been decreased more than three times by a better design of the magnetic shielding system. These optimizations make the scheme for reducing the BBR shift uncertainty of liquid-nitrogen-cooled optical clocks more mature and stable, and develop a stable lock with a narrower linewidth spectrum,which would be very beneficial for further reducing the overall systematic uncertainty of optical clocks.

Progress on the^40Ca^+ion optical clock

Progress of the ^40Ca^+ion optical clock based on the 4^2S1/2-3d ^2D5/2 electric quadrupole transition is reported.By setting the drive frequency to the“magic”frequencyΩ0,the frequency uncertainty caused by the scalar Stark shift and second-order Doppler shift induced by micromotion is reduced to the 10^-19 level.By precisely measuring the differential static scalar polarizability∆α0,the uncertainty due to the blackbody radiation(BBR)shift(coefficient)is reduced to the 10^-19 level.With the help of a second-order integrating servo algorithm,the uncertainty due to the servo error is reduced to the 10^-18 level.The total fractional uncertainty of the ^40Ca^+ion optical clock is then improved to 2.2×10^-17,whereas this value is mainly restricted by the uncertainty of the BBR shift due to temperature fluctuations.The state preparation is introduced together with improvements in the pulse sequence,and furthermore,a better signal to noise ratio(SNR)and less dead time are achieved.The clock stability of a single clock is improved to 4.8×10^-15√τ(in seconds).