Optical frequency ratio of a 171Yb+ single-ion clock and a 87Sr lattice clock. (7th January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dörscher, S; Huntemann, N; Schwarz, R; Lange, R; Benkler, E; Lipphardt, B; Sterr, U; Peik, E; Lisdat, C
• Is Part Of: Metrologia. Volume 58:Number 1(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-01-07
• Subjects: optical clocks -- frequency ratio -- ytterbium ion clock -- strontium lattice clock; Weights and measures -- Periodicals; Weights and Measures -- Periodicals; 530.805
• DOI: 10.1088/1681-7575/abc86f
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0026-1394

Abstract

Abstract: We report direct measurements of the frequency ratio of the 642 THz S 1 / 2 2 ( F = 0 ) – F 7 / 2 2 ( F = 3 ) electric octupole transition in 171 Yb + and the 429 THz S 0 1 – P 0 3 transition in 87 Sr. A series of 107 measurements has been performed at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt between December 2012 and October 2019. Long-term variations of the ratio are larger than expected from the individual measurement uncertainties of few 10 −17 . The cause of these variations remains unknown. Even taking these into account, we find a fractional uncertainty of the frequency ratio of 2.5 × 10 −17, which improves upon previous knowledge by one order of magnitude. The average frequency ratio is ν Y b + / ν S r = 1.495 991 618 544 900 537 ( 38 ) . This represents one of the most accurate measurements between two different atomic species to date.