High-precision atomic clocks with highly charged ions: nuclear spin-zero $f^{12}$-shell ions

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of highly charged ions with specific electronic configurations for ultra-precise optical atomic clocks, achieving systematic fractional accuracy below 10^{-19}.

Contribution

It introduces a method to reduce quadrupole shift effects in highly charged ions using virtual clock transitions, enhancing clock precision.

Findings

Systematic fractional accuracy estimated below 10^{-19}

Effective reduction of quadrupole shift effects

Identification of suitable isotopes without hyperfine structure

Abstract

Optical atomic clocks using highly-charged ions hold an intriguing promise of metrology at the 19th significant figure. Here we study transitions within the $4f^{12}$ ground-state electronic configuration of highly charged ions. We consider isotopes lacking hyperfine structure and show that the detrimental effects of coupling of electronic quadrupole moments to gradients of trapping electric field can be effectively reduced by using specially chosen virtual clock transitions. The estimated systematic fractional clock accuracy is shown to be below $10^{-19}$.