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Heavy metal optical clocks
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I am an associate professor at UC Santa Barbara in the Department of Physics. With trapped atomic and molecular ions I study fundamental symmetries as well as explore new opportunities for optical clocks and quantum information science.
I received my bachelor’s degree from Harvard and my PhD from Yale, advised by Jack Harris. Following my PhD I did a postdoc for Wes Campbell, where we laser cooled and trapped atoms with an optical frequency comb.
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Summary
To realize optical clocks on many satellites
we must have low-power, small, and robust systems - not bespoke devices,
otherwise the cost would be astronomical. To meet these demands a trapped ion
clock with integrated photonics is very appealing. We aim to lower
the requirements for integrated photonics by using transitions in the radium
ion that only require IR light. This heavy metal at the bottom of the periodic table as appealing properties that are often overlooked. We are using radium-225 which has the necessary nuclear spin for such a clock. We've laser cooled this isotope and measured the ion’s hyperfine structure. Despite radium-225’s short 15 day half-life we have
demonstrated an atomic source that is compatible with decades of continuous operation in space. We have realized an optical clock with radium-226 and are working
towards a clock with radium-225
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- Workflow status: Published
- Created by: tnevels9
- Created: 02/04/2025
- Modified By: tnevels9
- Modified: 02/04/2025
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