By tweaking the energy of a thorium nucleus with a laser, scientists demonstrated a key step to building clocks based on the physics of atomic nuclei.
In a first, scientists have used a tabletop laser to bump an atomic nucleus into a higher energy state. It’s a feat that sets scientists on a path toward creating the first nuclear clock, which would keep time based on the inner workings of atomic nuclei.
The advance is a “remarkable breakthrough,” says Olga Kocharovskaya, a physicist at Texas A&M University in College Station who was not involved in the research. Compared to atomic clocks — currently scientists’ most precise timekeepers — nuclear clocks could be simpler and more portable. And they could be used to test fundamental physics theories in new ways. With the new result, a nuclear clock seems more attainable than ever: “We know now that it’s conceptually feasible,” says physicist Peter Thirolf of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany, who was not part of the study. Tried-and-true atomic clocks are based on the physics of the electrons that surround atoms. Within those atoms, electrons inhabit individual energy levels. To coax an electron to jump to a particular higher energy level, it needs to be provided with just the right amount of energy from a laser. That energy corresponds to a specific frequency of the laser’s light. To home in on that frequency, scientists aim a laser at a ). That frequency is then used, like an atomic metronome, to keep time. Nuclear clocks would use the transitions of atomic nuclei, rather than electrons, to mark time. While most atomic nuclei have energy levels too far apart for a laser to kick off the jump, one special nucleus is an outlier. A variety of the element thorium, thorium-229, has an unusually small energy jump, accessible to lasers.That allowed physicists to take the next step. Researchers used a laser to bump thorium-229 nuclei to a higher energy level, and observed the light emitted in the jump back down. That number is consistent with the 2023 measurement, but is about 800 times as precise. To make a nuclear clock, scientists will need to increase the precision of this measurement even further. Scientists used a laser to set off a jump between energy levels in the nucleus of thorium-229, embedded in a crystal of calcium fluoride.When the researchers saw the signal, “we were very excited, of course,” says physicist Ekkehard Peik of the National Metrology Institute of Germany in Braunschweig. “It was a long search.” Peik first proposed the idea of making In the experiment, the thorium-229 was embedded in a crystal of calcium fluoride. This differs from atomic clocks, in which atoms are contained in a vacuum chamber. The possibility of making future nuclear clocks out of solid materials is part of their appeal: “Potentially you could imagine building a much simpler, portable system, taking this clock out of the lab,” says physicist Jun Ye of JILA in Boulder, Colo., who was not involved with the new research. A blue laser illuminates a crystal of calcium fluoride that is infused with thorium atoms, produced by researchers at TU Wien in Austria.And because nuclear clocks are based on different physics than atomic clocks, comparing the two types of timepieces could allow for ). Nuclear clocks could also allow new searches for dark matter, unidentified massive particles that pervade the universe. There’s still much more work to be done to build a nuclear clock. And even once scientists have built them, Ye says, “it will take years, if not decades, of work to catch up with atomic clocks.” But “just being able to see the transition opens the door.”
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Physicists discover lowest-ever frequency gravitational waves in pulsar dataPhysicists debut a new method to detect gravitational waves with unprecedented precision, providing insights into black hole mergers.
Read more »
Physicists reveal the statistical secrets of NFT market dynamicsThe researchers delved into various statistical parameters, including capitalization, minimum price, transaction frequency, time intervals between transactions, and transaction volume.
Read more »
Physicists Unlock the Secrets of Light-Induced Ferroelectricity in Quantum MaterialsScience, Space and Technology News 2024
Read more »
Breakthrough in ultraviolet spectroscopyPhysicists achieve major leap in precision and accuracy at extremely low light levels.
Read more »
Physicists develop modeling software to study biological membranes at the mesoscaleResearchers at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen and University of Southern Denmark have recently published FreeDTS—a shared software package designed to model and study biological membranes at the mesoscale—the scale 'in between' the larger macro level and smaller micro level.
Read more »
Research suggests how turbulence can be used to generate patternsPhysicists show how patterns can emerge from chaos in turbulent fluids.
Read more »