# An atomic array optical clock with single-atom readout

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel optical clock system using an array of individually trapped neutral atoms with single-atom readout, combining advantages of ion and lattice clocks and enabling advanced quantum applications.

## Contribution

The work demonstrates a new neutral atom optical clock platform with single-atom resolution, feedback control, and suppressed interaction shifts, bridging quantum simulation and precision metrology.

## Key findings

- Achieved stable, high-precision frequency measurements with atom-by-atom control.
- Validated results with Monte Carlo simulations including temperature and noise effects.
- Established a scalable, transportable optical clock setup suitable for quantum technologies.

## Abstract

Currently, the most accurate and stable clocks use optical interrogation of either a single ion or an ensemble of neutral atoms confined in an optical lattice. Here, we demonstrate a new optical clock system based on an array of individually trapped neutral atoms with single-atom readout, merging many of the benefits of ion and lattice clocks as well as creating a bridge to recently developed techniques in quantum simulation and computing with neutral atoms. We evaluate single-site resolved frequency shifts and short-term stability via self-comparison. Atom-by-atom feedback control enables direct experimental estimation of laser noise contributions. Results agree well with an ab initio Monte Carlo simulation that incorporates finite temperature, projective read-out, laser noise, and feedback dynamics. Our approach, based on a tweezer array, also suppresses interaction shifts while retaining a short dead time, all in a comparatively simple experimental setup suited for transportable operation. These results establish the foundations for a third optical clock platform and provide a novel starting point for entanglement-enhanced metrology, quantum clock networks, and applications in quantum computing and communication with individual neutral atoms that require optical clock state control.