Atomic Clocks, Optical Lattices, and Quantum Sensing
This community develops high-precision frequency standards and quantum sensors using laser-cooled atoms, primarily to measure time, gravity, and magnetic fields with extreme accuracy.
The work centers on optical lattice clocks, vapor-cell systems, and magneto-optical traps. Recurring techniques include laser cooling, frequency combs, and optically pumped magnetometers. Specific applications range from redefining the second and testing fundamental physics, such as the equivalence principle and gravitational redshift, to practical uses in navigation and quantum networking. The research frequently involves rubidium, cesium, strontium, and ytterbium atoms, alongside emerging work on thorium nuclear transitions and Rydberg states for quantum information processing.
Rubidium research accounts for 26.4% of the community’s output, with 2,410 papers. Francium research shows a 24.8% share, and Ytterbium research holds a 6.0% share.
The community comprises 12,923 papers, publishing most frequently in Physical Review A, Physical Review Letters, and Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics.
Recent work focuses on thorium-229 nuclear clock transitions, parallelized quantum networking with atom arrays, and clock precision beyond the standard quantum limit.
Papers behind this description
- Clock with 8 × 10 − 19 Systematic Uncertainty — Physical Review Letters, 2024 — doi:10.1103/physrevlett.133.023401
- Frequency ratio of the 229mTh nuclear isomeric transition and the 87Sr atomic clock — Nature, 2024 — doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07839-6
- Advances in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics — Advances in atomic, molecular, and optical physics, 2022 — doi:10.1016/s1049-250x(22)x0002-5x0002-5)
- Magnetoencephalography with optically pumped magnetometers (OPM-MEG): the next generation of functional neuroimaging — Trends in Neurosciences, 2022 — doi:10.1016/j.tins.2022.05.008
- Resolving the gravitational redshift across a millimetre-scale atomic sample — Nature, 2022 — doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04349-7
- Massive quantum systems as interfaces of quantum mechanics and gravity — Reviews of Modern Physics, 2025 — doi:10.1103/revmodphys.97.015003
- Entangling single atoms over 33 km telecom fibre — Nature, 2022 — doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04764-4
- Improved Limits on the Coupling of Ultralight Bosonic Dark Matter to Photons from Optical Atomic Clock Comparisons — Physical Review Letters, 2023 — doi:10.1103/physrevlett.130.253001
- Quantum networks with neutral atom processing nodes — npj Quantum Information, 2023 — doi:10.1038/s41534-023-00759-9
- Compact Ion-Trap Quantum Computing Demonstrator — PRX Quantum, 2021 — doi:10.1103/prxquantum.2.020343
- Parallelized telecom quantum networking with an ytterbium-171 atom array — Nature Physics, 2025 — doi:10.1038/s41567-025-03022-4
- Laser-based conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy of 229ThO2 — Nature, 2025 — doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09776-4
- Magneto-Optical Trapping of Aluminum Monofluoride — Physical Review Letters, 2025 — doi:10.1103/ksnd-9fyf
- Fine-structure constant sensitivity of the Th-229 nuclear clock transition — Nature Communications, 2025 — doi:10.1038/s41467-025-64191-7
- Clock Precision beyond the Standard Quantum Limit at 10 − 18 Level — Physical Review Letters, 2025 — doi:10.1103/6v93-whwq
- Continuous-wave laser source at the 148 nm nuclear transition of Th-229 — Optica, 2025 — doi:10.1364/optica.574489