About the Research Program

OptIClock: Optische Einzel-Ionen-Uhr für Anwender (optical single ion clock for users)

In Opticlock, consortium members from allover Germany team up to develop a commercial Yb+ ion optical clock which outperforms commercial hydrogen masers in terms of frequency stability on both short and long timescales, and which provides an absolute accuracy on par with the best primary atomic clocks. In a future development stage relying on another optical transition, performance might further improve significantly. Menlo is preparing the clock laser system in this project, which obviously is one of the key components of the foreseen clock system. Our goal is a fully automated and compact clock laser system compliant with the demanding OptIClock specifications yet tolerating usual lab conditions.

We are grateful for funding provided by BMBF Germany.