Collisional losses, decoherence, and frequency shifts in optical lattice clocks with bosons

TL;DR

This paper investigates collisional effects, decoherence, and frequency shifts in a bosonic 88Sr optical lattice clock, identifying conditions to operate without collision-induced accuracy degradation at 10^-16.

Contribution

It provides quantitative measurements of collisional coefficients and operational parameters to mitigate collision effects in bosonic 88Sr lattice clocks.

Findings

Quantified collisional loss and decoherence coefficients.

Determined optimal operation parameters for collision-free accuracy.

Achieved potential for 10^-16 precision in bosonic 88Sr clocks.

Abstract

We have quantified collisional losses, decoherence and the collision shift in a one-dimensional optical lattice clock with bosonic 88Sr. The lattice clock is referenced to the highly forbidden transition 1S0 - 3P0 at 698 nm, which becomes weakly allowed due to state mixing in a homogeneous magnetic field. We were able to quantify three decoherence coefficients, which are due to dephasing collisions, inelastic collisions between atoms in the upper and lower clock state, and atoms in the upper clock state only. Based on the measured coefficients, we determine the operation parameters at which a 1D-lattice clock with 88Sr shows no degradation due to collisions on the relative accuracy level of 10-16.