Optical clock sensitive to variation of the fine structure constant based on the Ho$^{14+}$ ion

TL;DR

This paper proposes using the Ho$^{14+}$ ion as a highly accurate optical clock sensitive to variations in the fine structure constant, with features enabling stable and precise measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ion-based optical clock design with enhanced sensitivity to fundamental constant variations and practical advantages for stability and detection.

Findings

Strong optical electric and magnetic dipole transitions identified

Zero quadrupole moments enable multi-ion interrogation

Potential for extremely accurate and stable optical clock

Abstract

We study the Ho$^{14+}$ ion as a candidate for extremely accurate and stable optical atomic clock which is sensitive to the time variation of the fine structure constant. We demonstrate that the proposed system has all desired features including relatively strong optical electric dipole and magnetic dipole transitions which can be used for cooling and detection. Zero quadrupole moments for the relevant states in the clock transition allows interrogating multiple ions to improve the clock stability.