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Concept

Optical lattice clock

A conceptual illustration of an optical lattice clock, featuring a central circular component surrounded by a network of interconnected spheres and lines, symbolizing trapped atoms in a laser-trap configuration.

A successor to the caesium fountain that traps thousands of neutral atoms — typically strontium or ytterbium — in a standing wave of laser light tuned to a wavelength at which the trap itself does not perturb the clock transition. Because the atoms are interrogated at optical rather than microwave frequencies, the best such clocks now keep time to a few parts in 10^18, roughly a hundred times sharper than any fountain.

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