Researchers in the US have made a breakthrough in nuclear clock development by utilizing physical vapor deposition (PVD) of thorium-229 to create thin films. This method reduces the amount of expensive and radioactive thorium-229 needed, making the clock more cost-effective and less radioactive. Nuclear clocks, which utilize energy transitions in the atom's nucleus, offer the potential for ultra-precise timekeeping, surpassing optical atomic clocks. This advancement paves the way for more practical and accessible nuclear clocks.
Scientists in the United States have made significant achievements for the development of a practical nuclear clock. A team of researchers, led by JILA and NIST Fellow and University of Colorado, found that physical vapour deposition of thorium-229 could reduce the amount of this expensive and radioactive isotope needed to make a timekeeper.
Scientists turned to nuclear clocks in the quest for ultra-precise timekeeping. Unlike optical atomic clocks—which rely on electronic transitions—nuclear clocks utilize the energy transitions in the atom’s nucleus, which are less affected by outside forces, meaning this type of clock could potentially keep time more accurately than any previously existing technology. But the development of such clocks has been challenging as thorium-229, one of the isotopes used in nuclear clocks, is rare, radioactive, and extremely costly to acquire in the substantial quantities required for this purpose.clocks a thousand times less radioactive and more cost-effective, thanks to a method creating thin films of thorium tetrafluoride .marks a potential turning point in the development of nuclear clocks. Using thin-film technology in nuclear clocks is commensurate with semiconductors and photonicPrevious approaches using thorium-doped crystals required more radioactive material. As thorium-229 is often sourced from uranium via nuclear decay, this leads to additional radiation safety and cost considerations, according to a“Thorium-229 by weight is more expensive than some of the custom proteins I’ve worked with in the past,” said JILA postdoctoral researcher Jake Higgins, who also contributed to the study. “So we had to make this work with as little material as possible,” added Higgins. The researchers collaborated closely with CU Boulder’s Environmental Health & Safety department to safely build and study their nuclear clock.The vaporized atoms then condensed on a substrate, forming a thin, even layer of thorium fluoride about 100 nanometers thick. The researchers selected sapphire and magnesium fluoride as“If we have a substrate very close by, the vaporized thorium fluoride molecules touch the substrate and stick to it, so you get a nice, even thin film,” added Zhang.Victor Flambaum of Australia’s University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the research, stated that it marks “a very significant technical advance,” in the quest to build a solid-state nuclear clock – something that he believes could be useful for sensing everything from oil to variations in the fine structure constant, reported “As a standard of frequency a solid state clock is not very good because it’s affected by the environment. As soon as we know the frequency very accurately we will do it with ions, but that has not been done yet,” added Flambaum. Researchers are excited about the improvements in precision timekeeping to be gained by using thin films in nuclear clocks based on their findings. “The general advantage of using clocks in a solid state, as opposed to in a trapped-ion setting, is that the number of atoms is much, much larger,” said JILA postdoctoral researcher Jake Higgins. “There are orders and orders of magnitude more atoms than one could feasibly have in an ion trap, which helps with your clock stability.” These thin films could additionally allow nuclear timekeeping to move beyond laboratory settings by making them compact and portable, according toPrabhat, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, is a tech and defense journalist. While he enjoys writing on modern weapons and emerging tech, he has also reported on global politics and business. He has been previously associated with well-known media houses, including the International Business Times and ANI.
NUCLEAR CLOCKS Thorium-229 THIN FILMS PRECISE TIMEKEEPING SCIENCE ADVANCEMENT
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