Scientists create world's first nuclear clock prototype

 

Scientists at the Vienna University of Technology made a breakthrough by creating the world's first nuclear clock prototype, according to ScienceAlert, an independently run online publication and news source that publishes articles featuring scientific research, discoveries, and outcomes.

A huge breakthrough decades in the making was made just a few months ago, and already scientists are realising its potential: A measurement of the gap between the quantum energy states of a thorium nucleus has been used to create the very first, rudimentary nuclear clock.

By coupling a strontium atomic clock with a crystal containing thorium nuclei, a team of physicists has successfully demonstrated the core technology that will lead us to the first fully realised and developed nuclear clock.

That milestone – still yet to be reached – will open up a whole new realm of ultra-precise timekeeping.

"With this first prototype, we have proven: Thorium can be used as a timekeeper for ultra-high-precision measurements," explained physicist Thorsten Strumm of the Vienna University of Technology.

"All that is left to do is technical development work, with no more major obstacles to be expected."

An atomic clock is one that relies on the very precise 'ticking' of atoms as they switch between energy states when stimulated by a laser, as determined by the states of the electrons that whirl about the nucleus at the atomic core.

The next step was to demonstrate that they could create a clock from this ticking, and this is what Strumm and his colleagues have now done. The team ran their experiment many times; each time, they achieved results consistent with an atomic clock. The next step will be to refine it.