Collaboration helps make JILA strontium atomic clock 'best in class'
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JILA's strontium atomic clock is now the world's most accurate clock based on neutral atoms. Credit: Greg Kuebler/JILA
A next-generation atomic clock that tops previous records for accuracy in clocks based on neutral atoms has been demonstrated by physicists at JILA, a joint institute of the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado at Boulder. The new clock, based on thousands of strontium atoms trapped in grids of laser light, surpasses the accuracy of the current U.S. time standard based on a "fountain" of cesium atoms.
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