Collisional losses, decoherence, and frequency shifts in optical lattice clocks with bosons

We have quantified collisional losses, decoherence and the collision shift in a one-dimensional optical lattice clock with bosonic 88Sr. The lattice clock is referenced to the highly forbidden transition 1S0 - 3P0 at 698 nm, which becomes weakly allowed due to state mixing in a homogeneous magnetic field. We were able to quantify three decoherence coefficients, which are due to dephasing collisions, inelastic collisions between atoms in the upper and lower clock state, and atoms in the upper clock state only. Based on the measured coefficients, we determine the operation parameters at which a 1D-lattice clock with 88Sr shows no degradation due to collisions on the relative accuracy level of 10-16.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

A transportable strontium optical lattice clock

We report on a transportable optical clock, based on laser-cooled strontium atoms trapped in an optical lattice. The experimental apparatus is composed of a compact source of ultra-cold strontium atoms including a compact cooling laser set-up and a transportable ultra-stable laser for interrogating the optical clock transition. The whole setup (excluding electronics) fits within a volume of less than 2 m$^3$. The high degree of operation reliability of both systems allowed the spectroscopy of the clock transition to be performed with 10 Hz resolution. We estimate an uncertainty of the clock of $7\times10^{-15}$.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Appl. Phys.

A compact and efficient strontium oven for laser-cooling experiments

Here we describe a compact and efficient strontium oven well suited for laser-cooling experiments. Novel design solutions allowed us to produce a collimated strontium atomic beam with a flux of 1.0\times10^13 s^-1 cm^-2 at the oven temperature of 450 {\deg}C, reached with an electrical power consumption of 36 W. The oven is based on a stainless-steel reservoir, filled with 6 g of metallic strontium, electrically heated in a vacuum environment by a tantalum wire threaded through an alumina multi-bore tube. The oven can be hosted in a standard DN40CF cube and has an estimated continuous operation lifetime of 10 years. This oven can be used for other alkali and alkaline earth metals with essentially no modifications.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, Review of Scientific Instruments, in pres

Wavelength dependent ac-Stark shift of the 1S0 - 3P1 transition at 657 nm in Ca

We have measured the ac-Stark shift of the 4s2 1S0 - 4s4p 3P1 line in 40Ca for perturbing laser wavelengths between 780 nm and 1064 nm with a time domain Ramsey-Borde atom interferometer. We found a zero crossing of the shift for the mS = 0 - mP = 0 transition and \sigma polarized perturbation at 800.8(22) nm. The data was analyzed by a model deriving the energy shift from known transition wavelengths and strengths. To fit our data, we adjusted the Einstein A coefficients of the 4s3d 3D - 4s4p 3P and 4s5s 3S - 4s4p 3P fine structure multiplets. With these we can predict vanishing ac-Stark shifts for the 1S0 m = 0 - 3P1 m = 1 transition and \sigma- light at 983(12) nm and at 735.5(20) nm for the transition to the 3P0 level.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

Interrogation laser for a strontium lattice clock

We report on the setup and characterization of a 698 nm master-slave diode laser system to probe the 1S0-3P0 clock transition of strontium atoms confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice. A linewidth in the order of around 100 Hz of the laser system has been measured with respect to an ultrastable 657 nm diode laser with 1 Hz linewidth using a femtosecond fiber comb as transfer oscillator. The laser has been used to measure the magnetically induced 1S0-3P0 clock transition in 88Sr where a linewidth of 165 Hz has been observed. The transfer oscillator method provides a virtual beat signal between the two diode lasers that has been used to phase lock the 698 nm laser to the 1 Hz linewidth laser at 657 nm, transferring its stability to the 698 nm laser system.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures, to be published in "IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, Special Issue CPEM 2008

Hyper-Ramsey Spectroscopy of Optical Clock Transitions

We present non-standard optical Ramsey schemes that use pulses individually tailored in duration, phase, and frequency to cancel spurious frequency shifts related to the excitation itself. In particular, the field shifts and their uncertainties of Ramsey fringes can be radically suppressed (by 2-4 orders of magnitude) in comparison with the usual Ramsey method (using two equal pulses) as well as with single-pulse Rabi spectroscopy. Atom interferometers and optical clocks based on two-photon transitions, heavily forbidden transitions, or magnetically induced spectroscopy could significantly benefit from this method. In the latter case these frequency shifts can be suppressed considerably below a fractional level of 10^{-17}. Moreover, our approach opens the door for the high-precision optical clocks based on direct frequency comb spectroscopy.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure