Ultra-precise, Shock-resistant Optical Clocks (USOC)

超精密、抗震光学时钟 (USOC)

• 批准号: EP/Y005163/1
• 负责人: Richard Hobson
• 金额: $ 78.96万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FY005163%2F1
• 关键词: Ultra; precise; Shock; resistant; Optical

Precise timing and synchronisation systems have a remarkable impact on our lives. Behind the scenes, precise timing underpins our digital communication networks, radar systems, and global satellite navigation systems (GNSS) such as GPS. The exceptionally precise timing offered by atomic clocks has been essential for these elements of our national and international infrastructure for several decades.While traditional microwave atomic clocks already have impressive precision down to 1 part in 10^14, atomic clock technology has undergone a revolution in the past two decades, since the invention of a new, accurate method to measure optical frequencies (see 2005 Nobel Prize in physics). Using the new `optical' atomic clocks, it is now possible to measure time more precisely than ever, with uncertainty down to a few parts in 10^19. These optical clocks have exciting applications in fundamental science: for example, we can observe them ticking at different rates when they are changed in height by as little as 1 mm from the ground, due to subtle effects of general relativity. However, if optical clocks could be deployed outside the laboratory, they could also have a significant practical impact on our lives - for example, they could enhance the speed and resilience of our digital communication networks.In this project, we are developing a new type of optical atomic clock which can not only measure time with even greater precision than current laboratory optical clocks, but will be robust enough to leave the laboratory and be deployed in field applications such as communication networks. At the core of our clock, we stabilise the optical ``ticks'' to the atoms continuously, rather than using more traditional pulsed stabilisation techniques. This continuous stabilisation improves the precision of the clock at short measurement times by a factor of up to 100, and greatly reduces sensitivity to mechanical shocks - which is otherwise an insurmountable barrier to developing portable, deployable clocks.

精确的定时和同步系统对我们的生活有着显著的影响。在幕后，精确的定时支撑着我们的数字通信网络、雷达系统和全球卫星导航系统（GNSS），如GPS。几十年来，原子钟提供的异常精确的计时对于我们国家和国际基础设施的这些元素至关重要。虽然传统的微波原子钟已经具有令人印象深刻的精度，低至10^14分之一，但原子钟技术在过去二十年中经历了一场革命，自从发明了一种新的，测量光学频率的精确方法（参见2005年诺贝尔物理学奖）。使用新的“光学”原子钟，现在可以比以往任何时候都更精确地测量时间，不确定性降低到10^19分之几。这些光学钟在基础科学中有着令人兴奋的应用：例如，由于广义相对论的微妙影响，当它们的高度从地面变化仅1毫米时，我们可以观察到它们以不同的速率滴答作响。然而，如果光学钟能够部署在实验室之外，它们也可以对我们的生活产生重大的实际影响-例如，它们可以提高我们的数字通信网络的速度和弹性。在这个项目中，我们正在开发一种新型的光学原子钟，它不仅可以比现有的实验室光学钟更精确地测量时间，但将足够健壮以离开实验室并部署在诸如通信网络的现场应用中。在我们的时钟的核心，我们稳定的光学“滴答”的原子不断，而不是使用更传统的脉冲稳定技术。这种连续稳定性将时钟在短测量时间内的精度提高了100倍，并大大降低了对机械冲击的敏感性-这是开发便携式可部署时钟的不可逾越的障碍。