Nuclear clock

Nuclear Clock
Concept of a thorium-229 based nuclear optical clock.
Industryscientific, satellite navigation, and data transfer
Applicationtime-keeping

A nuclear clock or nuclear optical clock is an atomic clock being developed that will use the energy of a nuclear isomeric transition as its reference frequency,[1] instead of the atomic electron transition energy used by conventional atomic clocks. Such a clock is expected to be more accurate than the best current atomic clocks by a factor of about 10, with an achievable accuracy approaching the 10−19 level.[2]

The only nuclear state suitable for the development of a nuclear clock using existing technology is thorium-229m, an isomer of thorium-229 and the lowest-energy nuclear isomer known. With an energy of 8.355733554021(8) eV,[3][4][5] this corresponds to a frequency of 2020407384335±2 kHz,[6] or wavelength of 148.382182883 nm, in the vacuum ultraviolet region, making it accessible to laser excitation.[7][8]

  1. ^ Peik, Ekkehard; Tamm, Christian (15 January 2003). "Nuclear laser spectroscopy of the 3.5 eV transition in 229Th" (PDF). Europhysics Letters. 61 (2): 181–186. Bibcode:2003EL.....61..181P. doi:10.1209/epl/i2003-00210-x. S2CID 250818523. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-04-11. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  2. ^ Campbell, Corey; et al. (23 March 2012). "Single-ion nuclear clock for metrology at the 19th decimal place" (PDF). Physical Review Letters. 108 (12) 120802. arXiv:1110.2490. Bibcode:2012PhRvL.108l0802C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.120802. PMID 22540568. S2CID 40863227.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Thirolf2024 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Tiedau, J.; Okhapkin, M. V.; Zhang, K.; Thielking, J.; Zitzer, G.; Peik, E.; et al. (29 April 2024). "Laser Excitation of the Th-229 Nucleus" (PDF). Physical Review Letters. 132 (18) 182501. Bibcode:2024PhRvL.132r2501T. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.182501. PMID 38759160. The nuclear resonance for the Th4+ ions in Th:CaF2 is measured at the wavelength 148.3821(5) nm, frequency 2020.409(7) THz, and the fluorescence lifetime in the crystal is 630(15) s, corresponding to an isomer half-life of 1740(50) s for a nucleus isolated in vacuum.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Zhang2024 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Conover, Emily (5 September 2024). "A nuclear clock prototype hints at ultraprecise timekeeping". Science News. Also appears in the 5 October print edition (p. 7) titled "Nuclear clock prototype makes debut".
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference WenseReview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Miller, Johanna L. (1 June 2024). "Slow-motion spectroscopy paves the way for a nuclear clock". Physics Today. Vol. 77, no. 6. pp. 12–14. doi:10.1063/pt.kvtv.jxde.