It’s not your ordinary pocket watch: The researchers showed that, at least under a narrow range of conditions, their clock could beat a benchmark for precision called the “standard quantum limit”—what physicist Adam Kaufman refers to as the “Holy Grail” for optical atomic clocks.
“What we’re able to do is divide the same length of time into smaller and smaller units,” said Kaufman, senior author of the new study and a fellow at JILA, a joint research institute between CU Boulder and NIST. “That acceleration could allow us to track time more precisely.”
The team’s advancements could lead to new quantum technologies. They include sensors that can measure subtle changes in the environment, such as how Earth’s gravity shifts with elevation.
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