Accurate Determination of Blackbody Radiation Shifts in a Strontium Molecular Lattice Clock
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: Molecular lattice clocks enable the search for new physics, such as fifth forces or temporal variations of fundamental constants, in a manner complementary to atomic clocks. Blackbody radiation (BBR) is a major contributor to the systematic error budget of conventional atomic clocks and is notoriously difficult to characterize and control. Here, we combine infrared Stark-shift spectroscopy in a molecular lattice clock and modern quantum chemistry methods to characterize the polarizabilities of the Sr_{2} molecule from dc to infrared. Using this description, we determine the static and dynamic blackbody radiation shifts for all possible vibrational clock transitions to the 10^{-16} level. This constitutes an important step toward millihertz-level molecular spectroscopy in Sr_{2} and provides a framework for evaluating BBR shifts in other homonuclear molecules.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, Narodowe Centrum Nauki, Infrastruktura PL-Grid, Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej, Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, Academic Computer Centre Cyfronet, AGH University of Science and Technology, Office of Naval Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research
OpenAlex ID: W4390236990