Single clock performance at NIST and offshore. a. The 3U, 19-inch rack-mounted iodine optical clock occupies a volume of 35L and consumes less than 100W. b, Measured iodine clock phase noise. c, Overlapping Allen bias of iodine clocks operating at NIST and offshore. On short time scales, instabilities in dynamic environments are the same as in the laboratory. d, the clocks can maintain 10ps for hours and 1ns for days, demonstrating their potential as the basis for picosecond-level timing networks. Credit: nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07225-2
A team of physicists and engineers at navigation and communications equipment manufacturer Vector Atomic, Inc. has developed a new atomic clock that they claim is both ultra-accurate and robust.In their papers published in journals naturethe team describes the factors that went into building the new clock and how it worked during field testing on a ship in the Pacific.
MITER’s Bonnie Marlow and Jonathan Hirschauer published a News & Views article in the same issue outlining the need for ultra-precise atomic clocks and the work being done by the Vector Atomic team.
As the tools used on ships have become more sophisticated, the technology behind them has become increasingly reliant on precise timing. Navigation uses radio systems, such as those using GPS. Using such systems, very small timing errors in measuring signal propagation between satellites can lead to positioning errors of hundreds of meters, which can have a big impact when warships are involved.
Currently, ships rely on atomic clocks that are robust enough to work on rolling ships, but they are far less accurate than those used in research labs. In this new effort, the Vector Atomic team developed a clock to help bridge the gap.
The clock, which is based on oscillating iodine molecules, weighs just 26 kilograms, about the size of three shoe boxes, and is small enough to be used on almost any boat. The organization claims it is about 1,000 times more accurate than the type of clock currently used on most ships.
The team has been working with the New Zealand Navy during the development of the clock. They tested the clock on board HMNZS Aotearoa, which conducted normal shipping operations in the Pacific for three weeks. Test data showed that the clock was nearly as accurate as when tested in the laboratory – with the time error remaining within 300 trillionths of a second on any given day.
The development team notes that they are continuing work on the clock, hoping to make it small enough to carry navigation satellites.
More information:
Jonathan D. Roslund et al., Maritime Optical Clocks, nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07225-2
Bonnie LS Marlow et al., Robust optical clock ensures stable timing in portable packages, nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/d41586-024-01022-7
2024 Science
citation: Scientists create ultra-accurate and robust new atomic clock (April 26, 2024) Retrieved April 26, 2024, from https://techxplore.com/news/2024-04-scientists-atomic-clock-ultra- precise.html
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