Strontium Ion Optical Clocks at NPL

Geoffrey Barwood1, Patrick Gill1, Guilong Huang1, Yao Huang2 and Hugh Klein1.
National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0LW, United Kingdom. 2 Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics (WIPM), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
1

Introduction
Optical frequency standards offer a step improvement of one to two orders of magnitude in the future ability to realise the SI second [1]. The NPL strontium ion optical clock project [2] is targeted on creating systems with better performance than microwave clocks, for both space [3] and terrestrial environments. Recent activities have centred on compact transportable system development and long-term unattended operation with quantum-limited performance. One ring and two end-cap 88Sr+ trap systems based on the 2S1/2 - 2D5/2 674 nm optical-clock quadrupole transition are under development.

Partial term scheme of 88Sr+ ion

Overall schematic of the trap and laser systems

Cooling radiation at 422 nm + Sr trap AOM2 844 nm DFB
PPKTP doubling crystal

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

PMT

1033 nm DFB
20

Number of jumps in 40 Interrogations

mj = -2

Zeeman structure of the 674 nm 88 Sr+ optical clock transition

-2 -1 -1 0 0 +1 +1 +2 +2

1092 nm DFB laser

15

Cooling laser system

844 nm etalon

10

Polarisation modulator

AOM1

0 -100

674 nm probe laser system

-50 0 Laser Frequency (kHz) 50 100

"Clock" laser at 674 nm

PPKTP doubling crystal: 422 nm output) 1092 nm laser

Probe laser system

Fast feedback (via current) Slow feedback To laser PZT 674 nm laser Isolator FM lock APD Fibre link
Phase modulator

Cut-out cavity in vacuum chamber [4]

Insensitive to horizontal and vertical acceleration
ULE highfinesse etalon

844 nm laser

Mounted on an AVI Cavity spacer linear thermal expansion zero at ~20C

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Sr ion end-cap traps

+

PBS /4 plate Vibration isolation platform

Wednesday, 25 May 2

To fs laser
V1 VACcos t 0.56 mm
Relative frequency stability
5x10 4x10 3x10
-15 -15

AOM @ ~70 MHz

Output to trap (via fibre)

0.18 0.16

Transition probability for 160 interrogations

0.14 0.12 0.10 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0.00 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150

VAC ~ 200 V ~ 17 MHz V1, V2 ~ few volts

-15

2 Hz beat width

2x10

-15

The 674 nm clock lasers, locked to ULE cavities, reach stabilities of 2 to 3 parts in 1015 between 1 and 500 s, with the linear and quadratic drifts removed.

10

-15

Frequency (Hz)
1 10 100

Frequency (Hz)

Averaging time (s)

Allan deviation between two 674 nm clock lasers

16 Number of quantum jumps in 80 interrogations 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 10 kHz

Beat frequency between two 674 nm clock lasers with 3 sec averaging time
Assuming white noise and that lasers are similar; individual laser widths 1.5Hz. Rises to 6 Hz over 30 sec; ~ 4 Hz per laser.

Sr+ cold ion 674 nm Zeeman component of ~9Hz width (transform limited with 100 ms pulse)
88

3 4

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

1 2

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Software for data taking and error recovery

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Stability and reproducibility

Lock monitoring and recovery for 674 nm and 844 nm 1092 nm and 1033 nm diode laser drift control via wavemeter By comparing the two Sr+ end-cap traps, we have demonstrated single-ion stability of 7 parts in 1016 at 1000 seconds In five hours, with a 200 ms probe pulse, calculations indicate one should be able to achieve relative frequency stabilities of parts in 1017

Locking to the strontium transition

16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 16 Number of quantum jumps in 80 interrogations 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

3 4

Number of quantum jumps in 80 interrogations

16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

1 2

1 2

3 4

Number of quantum jumps in 80 interrogations

10 kHz

10 kHz

Primary servo: n2 n1 f f + gp n2 + n1
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674 nm probe laser frequency 1 2 3 4

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

10 kHz

f f + s servo: Secondary t

674 nm probe laser frequency

f f + s adjusted to make the average QJI zero The slope ist s s + g s < QJI > n n
s

n n f + gp n2 + n1

2 1 674 nm probe laser frequency

s s + g s quantum Average the< QJI > jump imbalance (QJI) over a few minutesn1 n2 and f f + gp then add a frequency: n2 + n1
674 nm probe laser frequency

f + st

f s + g s < QJI > p f +g

f f Paul Compact+ st ring trap (r0 = 1.5 mm)

Trap operates with small 2 l/s pump

n2 + n1

Up to 60 hours of continuous two-trap comparison data taken

Systematics projected to be:

Doppler shifts (secular & micromotion) Zeeman shifts (residual linear & quadratic) Quadrupole shift (nulled) Stark (trapping fields, secular motion etc) Blackbody Stark shift (1 K) Gravitational shift ( 0.1 m) ~10-17 <10-18 ~2 x10-17 ~3 x10-17 ~10-17 ~10-17

s + g s < QJI >

70 mm cube Two-layer mu-metal shield, volume of the delivery optics and magnetically shielded vacuum chamber less than a tenth of the end-cap trap optical clock systems 12 mm diameter photomultiplier was installed and two layers of magnetic shielding

Outlook
Implement optical pumping to increase quantum jump rate Complete two-trap comparison and systematics evaluation Frequency measurement relative to NPL Cs fountain using fs combs Compact trap development for long-term uninterrupted operation; demonstrate capability to operate in space

Compensation Ring electrode

End cap

References

[1] H.S. Margolis, Optical Frequency Standards and Clocks, Contemporary Physics 51 (1) 37-58 (2010). [2] G.P. Barwood, P. Gill, G. Huang and H.A. Klein, Observation of a sub-10 Hz linewidth 88 + 2 1/2 2 5/2 Sr S - D clock transition at 674 nm, IEEE TIM 56 226-229 (2007). [3] Patrick Gill, Helen Margolis, Anne Curtis, Hugh Klein, Stephen Webster and Peter Whibberley, Optical Atomic Clocks for Space, Tech. Supporting Doc. ESTEC/Contract 21641/08/NL/PA (Nov. 2008): http://www.npl.co.uk/upload/pdf/atomic_clocks_space.pdf [4] S.A. Webster et al, Phys Rev A75 011801(R) (2007)

Acknowledgement

This work was funded by the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), as part of the National Measurement System (NMS) Pathfinder programme. Discussion with collaboration partners and colleagues at WIPM, ESA, JPL and NPL is gratefully acknowledged.