Progress at NIST toward absolute frequency standards using stored ions

Author

Wineland, D.J. ; Bergquist, J.C. ; Bollinger, J.J. ; Itano, W.M. ; Heinzen, D.J. ; Gilbert, S.L. ; Manney, C.H. ; Weimer, C.S.

Author_Institution

US Nat. Inst. of Stand. & Technol., Boulder, CO, USA

fYear

1989

fDate

May 31 1989-June 2 1989

Firstpage

143

Lastpage

150

Abstract

Experiments at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology to realize frequency standards of high accuracy using stored ions are briefly summarized. In one experiment, an RF oscillator is locked to a nuclear spin-flip hyperfine transition (frequency approximately=3.03*10/sup 8/ Hz) in /sup 9/Be/sup +/ ions which are stored in a Penning trap and sympathetically laser-cooled. Stability is better than 3*10/sup -12/ tau /sup -12/ and uncertainty in Doppler shifts is estimated to be less than 5*10/sup -15/. In a second experiment, a stable laser is used to probe an electric quadrupole transition (frequency approximately=1.07*10/sup 15/ Hz) in a single laser-cooled /sup 199/Hg/sup +/ ion stored in a Paul trap. The measured Q value of this transition is approximately 10/sup 13/. Possible future experiments are also discussed.<>

Keywords

Doppler effect; atomic clocks; frequency measurement; ion optics; measurement standards; time measurement; /sup 199/Hg/sup +/ ion; /sup 9/Be/sup +/ ions; Doppler shifts; NBS; NIST; Paul trap; Penning trap; RF oscillator; US National Institute of Standards and Technology; absolute frequency standards; electric quadrupole transition; nuclear spin-flip hyperfine transition; stable laser; stored ions; sympathetically laser-cooled; Doppler shift; Laser stability; Laser transitions; Mercury (metals); NIST; Oscillators; Probes; Radio frequency; Resonant frequency; Uncertainty;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Frequency Control, 1989., Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Symposium on

Conference_Location

Denver, CO, USA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/FREQ.1989.68849

Filename

68849