Minimizing the Required Trap Depth in Optical Lattice Clocks

Pierre Lemonde, Peter Wolf

Abstract:	We study the trap depth requirement for the realization of an optical clock using atoms confined in a lattice. We show that site-to-site tunnelling leads to a residual sensitivity to the atom dynamics hence requiring large depths (50 to 100 Er for Sr) to avoid any frequency shift or line broadening of the atomic transition at the 10-17 - 10-18 level. Such large depths and the corresponding laser power may, however, lead to difficulties (e.g. higher order light shifts, two-photon ionization, technical difficulties) and therefore one would like to operate the clock in much shallower traps. To circumvent this problem we propose the use of an accelerated lattice. Acceleration lifts the degeneracy between adjacents potential wells which strongly inhibits tunnelling. We show that using the Earth’s gravity, much shallower traps (down to 5 Er for Sr) can be used for the same accuracy goal.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 37th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting August 29 - 31, 2005 Vancouver, Canada
Pages:	947 - 955
Cite this article:	Lemonde, Pierre, Wolf, Peter, "Minimizing the Required Trap Depth in Optical Lattice Clocks," Proceedings of the 37th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Vancouver, Canada, August 2005, pp. 947-955.
Full Paper:	ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit Sign In