Research Areas - (3) Strontium Optical Lattice Clock Metrology

Full path: Physics > AMO Physics > Atomic Clocks > Strontium Optical Lattice Clock Metrology

Julian Berengut 🔗
University of New South Wales 🔗
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Department(s)/lab(s): School of Physics | Berengut Atomic Structure and Clocks Theory Group @ UNSW
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Berengut works on the atomic structure theory underpinning next-generation clocks: highly charged ions, whose optical transitions are both extremely narrow and exceptionally sensitive to variation of fundamental constants and to new physics, and the thorium-229 nuclear clock. He identifies which ionic species and transitions maximise sensitivity to the physics of interest while remaining experimentally accessible, and computes the many-body structure needed to interpret them — work that has directly guided the experimental HCI clock programmes at PTB, MPIK and NIST. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — clocks and magnetometers are the two great classes of quantum sensor; his work is on the frequency side of the same estimation problem that fixes pT/sqrt(Hz) performance on the magnetic side. Theory PI with close experimental collaborations.

Shimon Kolkowitz 🔗
University of California, Berkeley 🔗
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Department(s)/lab(s): Physics | Kolkowitz Lab @ UCB
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Kolkowitz's group builds ultra-precise strontium optical lattice clocks for differential clock comparisons and fundamental-physics tests, and separately pioneered scanning single-NV magnetometry for imaging nanoscale current and spin transport in quantum materials. This combination of atomic-clock and solid-state defect-spin sensing places the group's diamond work squarely alongside the broader NV ensemble sensing literature (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry) that has achieved pT/sqrt(Hz)-class field sensitivities; the lab is actively recruiting postdocs in both directions.

Rodolphe Le Targat 🔗
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 🔗 Paris Observatory - PSL 🔗 Sorbonne University 🔗
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Department(s)/lab(s): Physics | SYRTE - Optical Frequency Metrology Team @ CNRS
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Le Targat co-leads SYRTE's Optical Frequency Metrology team, which built and continuously operates two independent strontium optical lattice clocks alongside a mercury lattice clock, comparing them at the 10^-16 to 10^-17 level and to SYRTE's caesium fountain primary standards. This work underpins the prospective redefinition of the SI second on an optical transition and supports frequency-transfer, geodesy and fundamental-physics tests via fiber links to other French metrology laboratories.