As we all know, the atomic clock is currently the most accurate timekeeping tool. At present, the most commonly used cesium atomic clock, each "tick" of it comes from the electromagnetic wave emitted when the atom absorbs or releases energy. Due to the stability of the electromagnetic wave itself, coupled with the aid of a series of precision instruments, the accuracy of atomic clocks can even reach hundreds of millions of years with an error of 1 second. On this basis, scientists at the California Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have recently developed a new type of atomic clock based on optical frequencies, and related papers have been published in the top physics journal "Physical Review X". The new clock design is based on two existing optical atomic clocks, one based on trapping a single charged atom (ion), and one that traps thousands of neutral atoms in a so-called optical lattice.
In the first method, in the process of capturing ions, only one atom (ion) needs to be accurately separated and controlled to improve the accuracy of the clock; in the second method, the opposite idea is adopted. The advantage of the optical array method is Multiple atoms-the more atoms there are, the less uncertainty will be due to the random quantum fluctuations of a single atom.
It is understood that this new atomic clock is nicknamed "tweezers clock", derived from the research process of scientists using so-called "laser tweezers" to manipulate individual atoms. They used laser tweezers to precisely control 40 atoms, thus combining the advantages of the two methods.
In this article titled "A Single Atom Readout Atomic Array Optical Clock" the overview states: "Here, we demonstrate a new optical clock system based on a set of individually captured neutral atomic arrays. Single atom readout."
In addition to accuracy, the greater significance of this technology is that "the system combines the many advantages of ion and lattice clocks, and builds a bridge for the use of neutral atoms for quantum simulation and calculation."
