2015/03/29 by K. Bongs, Kai Bongs, Yeshpal Singh +51 · 1 citation
Engineering · Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Frequency and Time Standards #Aerospace engineering #Astronomy #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cardiovascular Syncope and Autonomic Disorders #Electrical engineering #Engineering #International Space Station #Optical lattice #Physics #Quantum mechanics #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.crhy.2015.03.009
published as Comptes Rendus Physique 16, 553-564 (2015) · 27 Pages, 15 figures, Comptes Rendus Physique 2015
arxiv created 2015/03/29 · openalex publication_date 2015/04/15 · arxiv updated 2015/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Ultra-precise optical clocks in space will allow new studies in fundamental physics and astronomy. Within an European Space Agency (ESA) program, the “Space Optical Clocks” (SOC) project aims to install and to operate an optical lattice clock on the International Space Station (ISS) towards the end of this decade. It would be a natural follow-on to the ACES mission, improving its performance by at least one order of magnitude. The payload is planned to include an optical lattice clock, as well as a frequency comb, a microwave link, and an optical link for comparisons of the ISS clock with ground clocks located in several countries and continents. Within the EU-FP7-SPACE-2010-1 project No. 263500, during the years 2011–2015 a compact, a modular and robust strontium lattice optical clock demonstrator has been developed. The goal performance is a fractional frequency instability below <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>15</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:mspace width="0.2em"/> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>τ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:mo stretchy="false">/</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> and a fractional inaccuracy below <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>5</mml:mn> <mml:mtext> </mml:mtext> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>17</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> . Here we describe the current status of the apparatus' development, including the laser subsystems. The robust preparation of cold 88 Sr atoms in a second-stage magneto-optical trap (MOT) is achieved.