Quantum Institute: Visitor Schedule

The Quantum Lunch is regularly held on Thursdays in the Theoretical Division Conference Room, TA-3, Building 123, Room 121.

The organizing committee includes Ryan O. Behunin (T-4 & CNLS), Malcolm Boshier (P-21), Adolfo del Campo (T-4 & CNLS), Michael Di Rosa (C-PCS), Ivar Martin (T-4), Changhyun Ryu (P-21), Rolando D. Somma (T-4), Christopher Ticknor (T-1), and Wojciech H. Zurek (T-4).

For more information, or to nominate a speaker, contact Adolfo del Campo.

To add your name to the Quantum Lunch email list, contact Ellie Vigil.

Thursday, February 2, 2012
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Speaker: Jeff Sherman (NIST Boulder, Time and Frequency Division)

Technical Host: W. Clark Griffith

TOPIC: Blackbody-Stark and cold-collision shifts in an optical lattice clock

Abstract
Optical atomic clocks promise unmatched oscillator stability and ultimate fractional frequency uncertainty in the 1e-17 regime and beyond. Applications of these frequency references range from the generation of low-phase-noise microwaves to tests of fundamental physics. A clock based on an optical lattice of ultracold fermionic ytterbium atoms has been limited by uncertainties due to room-temperature blackbody radiation and atomic density-dependent shifts. We report two precision measurements that substantially reduce these uncertainties: a ~20 ppm measurement of atomic polarizability, and characterization of p-wave dominated cold-collisions.