40Ca+ optical frequency standards with high accuracy

Abstract

With the development of the technologies in the lasers and the manipulation of cold atoms, the high precision optical frequency standards have been extensively studied and built in recent years. These high precision frequency standards may play an important role in establishing the new time reference, promoting the researches in the fundamental fields, fulfilling the national strategic needs, etc. In this paper, the research progress of high accuracy 40Ca+ optical frequency standard in Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics (WIPM) of Chinese Academy of Sciences is presented. A new ULE super cavity is adopted for stabilizing the frequency of 729 nm clock laser, and the stability of the laser is improved now to 2×10-15 in a duration of 1-100 s. By controlling the external fields and other environmental influences, especially suppressing the micromotion effects of the trapped ion, the uncertainty of the optical frequency standard based on a single 40Ca+ is reduced to 5.5×10-17. The stability of 5×10-17 in a duration of 20000 s is achieved via the comparison between two 40Ca+ optical frequency standards. Several precision measurement experiments are performed, based on the high precision 40Ca+ optical frequency standard. The absolute value of the clock transition frequency of the 40Ca+ optical frequency standard is measured second time, using an optical comb referenced to a hydrogen maser which is calibrated via GPS referenced to UTC (NIM)) using the precise point positioning data-processing technique. The frequency offset of UTC (NIM) relative to the SI second can be evaluated through BIPM circular-T reports, and the newly measured value of m 4s 2S1/2-3m d 2D5/2 transition is adopted by CCTF-20, thus updating the recommended value of 40Ca+ optical clock transition. Besides the absolute frequency measurement, the magic wavelengths of 40Ca+ optical clock transition are measured precisely, and this work is a milestone for establishing all-optical trapped-ion clocks. The lifetime of the m 3 d 2D3/2 and m 3 d 2D5/2 state in 40Ca+ are precisely measured, too. The work mentioned above contributes to the researches of the precision measurements based on cold atomic systems.