This has now paved the way for a multi-ion optical ytterbium clock that combines the high accuracy of single-ion clocks with the improved stability of multi-ion operation. The new atomic species is ...

For decades, atomic clocks have provided the most stable means of timekeeping. They measure time by oscillating in step with the resonant frequency of atoms, a method so accurate that it serves as the ...

A thorium-doped calcium fluoride crystal's temperature is continually monitored while a VUV frequency comb is used to directly resolve individual quantum states of the nuclear transition. For decades, ...

As if timekeeping in the U.S. wasn’t already pretty accurate, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) just declared a new atomic clock, the NIST-F2, to ...

Where and why tiny, portable, atomic clocks and their precision are needed. How atomic clocks are no longer room- or box-size arrangements. The size, power, and other metrics of a latest-generation ...

A new comb-like computer chip could be the key to equipping drones, smartphones and autonomous vehicles with military-grade positioning technology that was previously confined to space agencies and ...

For many years, cesium atomic clocks have been reliably keeping time around the world. But the future belongs to even more accurate clocks: optical atomic clocks. In a few years' time, they could ...