Description: Interrogation of ultracold strontium atoms confined in an optical lattice on a doubly-forbidden clock transition for state-of-the-art optical frequency metrology.
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.
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.