Abstract

With timekeeping being of paramount importance for modern life, much research and major scientific advances have been undertaken in the field of frequency metrology, particularly over the last few years. New Nobel-prize winning technologies have enabled a new era of atomic clocks; namely the optical clock. These have been shown to perform significantly better than the best microwave clocks reaching an inaccuracy of 1.6×10⁻¹⁸ [1]. With such results being found in large lab based apparatus, the focus now has shifted to portability - to enable the accuracy of various ground based clocks to be measured, and compact autonomous performance - to enable such technologies to be tested in space. This could lead to a master clock in space, improving not only the accuracy of technologies on which modern life has come to require such as GPS and communication networks. But also more fundamentally, this could lead to the redefinition of the second and tests of fundamental physics. Within the European collaboration, Space Optical Clocks (SOC2) [2-3] consisting of various institutes and industry partners across Europe we have tried to tackle this problem of miniaturisation whilst maintaining stability, accuracy (5×10⁻¹⁷) and robustness whilst keeping power consumption to a minimum – necessary for space applications. We will present the most recent results of the Sr optical clock in SOC2 and also the novel compact design features, new methods employed and outlook.

© 2015 IEEE