Latest Atomic clock Stories

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated the first "universal" programmable quantum information processor able to run any program allowed by quantum mechanics"”the rules governing the submicroscopic world"”using two quantum bits (qubits) of information. The processor could be a module in a future quantum computer, which theoretically could solve some important problems that are intractable today.The NIST demonstration, described...

Finally, an optical frequency comb that visibly lives up to its name.Scientists at the University of Konstanz in Germany and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States have built the first optical frequency comb"”a tool for precisely measuring different frequencies of visible light"”that actually looks like a comb.As described in the Oct. 30 issue of Science,* the "teeth" of the new frequency comb are separated enough that when viewed with a...

TUALATIN, Ore., Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- As daylight-saving time approaches, consumers nationwide are able to relieve the stress of remembering to change their clocks. Oregon Scientific, a leading maker of consumer electronics, offers a wide variety of self-setting clocks that automatically program themselves to the U.S. Atomic Clock time for official, precise time 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with automatic adjustment for daylight saving. (Photo:...

PTB researchers want to construct the "atomic clock of the future" much more simply and more compactly than the previous elaborate laboratory set-ups You imagine a clock to be different - yet the optical table with its many complicated set-ups really is one. Optical clocks like the strontium clock in the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig could be the atomic clocks of the future; some of them though are already ten times more precise and stable than the best...

An experimental atomic clock based on ytterbium atoms is about four times more accurate than it was several years ago, giving it a precision comparable to that of the NIST-F1 cesium fountain clock, the nation's civilian time standard, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report in Physical Review Letters.*NIST scientists evaluated the clock by measuring the natural frequency of ytterbium, carefully accounting for all possible deviations such as those...

Researchers have figured out how to nullify collision effects and make the clock still more preciseTo accurately measure tiny intervals of time, you need a clock that ticks very fast and very precisely. For the ultimate in accuracy, scientists reach for atoms, or more precisely, an exactly known frequency of light emitted by a chosen atom. The 'ticks' are the crests of a light wave, which rises and falls as many as a thousand trillion times per second. In an effort to improve the already...

A clock that is so precise that it loses only a second every 300 million years "“ this is the result of new research in ultra cold atoms. The international collaboration is comprised of researchers from the University of Colorado, USA and the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen and the results have just been published in the prestigious scientific journal, Science.An atomic clock consists of gas atoms captured in a magnetic field where they are held stationary with precise...

Institute of Quantum Electronics, School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, has proposed the concept, principles and techniques of active optical clock. The study is reported in Issue 54 (February, 2009) of Chinese Science Bulletin because of its significant research value.Up to date, all realize that optical clocks are based on the laser absorption spectroscopy. Thus the available laser with narrowest linewidth limits the linewidth of state-of-the-art optical...

Caesium fountains are more accurate than "normal" atomic caesium clocks, because in fountains the caesium atoms are cooled down with the aid of laser beams and come ever slower - from a rapid velocity at room temperature to a slow "creep pace" of a few centimetres per second at a temperature close to the absolute zero point. Thus, the atoms remain together for a longer time so that the physicists have considerably more time to measure the decisive property of the caesium...

This year will be longer than usual -- by one second, the U.S. Institute of Standards and Technology said Wednesday. The earth is sufficiently out of sync that a leap second has been scheduled for 7 p.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time on Dec. 31, said the institute, noting those interested in watching it happen should go to www.time.gov before midnight, London time, and click on their time zone. A total of 24 leap seconds have been added since 1972, the last being in December 2005, because the...