New Atomic Clock Innovation Record-Breaking on Timekeeping, Loses Only One Second Per 300 Billion Years

Experts recently presented a study regarding the highest performance atomic clocks in history. The new device has the ability to measure the time accurately that it can only lose one second in each 300-billion-year cycle.

The latest atomic clock, according to the study, contains a precise measuring approach that could possibly benefit the study of physical phenomena such as gravitational waves and dark matter.

New Atomic Clock Developed by UW-Madison

(Photo : Tom Swinnen from Pexels)

According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison physics expert and lead author of the research Shimon Kolkowitz, the optical lattice clocks are among the greatest measurement devices we have, but the new innovation they carried out produced a striking level of performance that no one ever witnessed.

Atomic clocks are made to track resonances that are exhibited by atom frequencies. Readings are commonly harnessed from atoms in rubidium, and cesium. With the complex process, such clocks are able to track time with high accuracy.

NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock is among the best examples of the device that is utilized in space-based research. The measurement machine was first launched into orbit two years ago.

Atomic clocks are kept up and running by tracking the energy levels that electrons exhibit. The authors of the new study explained that electrons either emit or absorb light when it shifts their energy levels. During this stage, the electron activity matches a specific element's atom frequency.

Optical atomic clocks monitor time with the help of a specialized laser that has the capacity to match the frequency gathered from the electron. According to the authors, the lasers selected for the clocks are highly developed for more accurate time-keeping.

In the paper, a multiplexed clock was created with the function of separating strontium atoms in a controlled single vacuum chamber. Kolkowitz dubbed the device as a "relatively lousy laser," which contradicts its powerful performance in measurement.

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Atomic Clock's World-Record Precision

Pointing the laser to a single clock excites the electron with the identical number of atom frequencies in just one-tenth of a second. When the team tested the laser with two clocks at the exact same moment, the atoms remained excited for 26 seconds.

Kolkowitz said that the lasers would normally serve as a limiting factor that prevents the clocks from reaching their full performance. However, when the clocks are in the same plane and were relayed with the same laser light, the impact of the laser becomes ineffective.

The authors compared each of the clocks' measurement variations, as it is known that just a slight discrepancy between their environments, magnetic field, and gravity will result in a distinct rate. The test was conducted over 1,000 times to get ahold of the difference between the devices' precision.

The experts found that the two atomic clocks will only have a mismatch of one second in every 300-billion-year cycle. According to the authors, it is safe to say that the precise measurement shown by the spatially separated clocks is indeed a world record.

A separate study on atomic clocks was presented by the experts from the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics of JILA in Colorado. According to Space, the institute currently holds the world record for the most accurate frequency difference, exceeding that of the UW-Madison team. Kolkowitz said that it is amazing to come in second of the Jila group even though their new study measured magnitudes by utilizing a worse laser.