Micromagic Clock: Microwave Clock Based on Atoms in an Engineered Optical Lattice

Abstract

We propose a new class of atomic microwave clocks based on the hyperfine transitions in the ground state of aluminum or gallium atoms trapped in optical lattices. For such elements magic wavelengths exist at which both levels of the hyperfine doublet are shifted at the same rate by the lattice laser field, cancelling its effect on the clock transition. A similar mechanism for the magic wavelengths may work in microwave hyperfine transitions in other atoms which have the fine-structure multiplets in the ground state.