Close-up of the world's most accurate atomic clock

The team has been developing this clock for many years, with an accuracy that conventional atomic clocks using cesium atoms cannot achieve.

Close-up of the world's most accurate atomic clock Picture 1 Close-up of the world's most accurate atomic clock Picture 1

The new atomic lattice clock has set a record for accuracy with a deviation of just one second every 39.15 billion years. Researchers have created a device with an accuracy of about eight billionths of a billionths, a level of precision that is such that it takes the clock nearly 39.15 billion years to miss one second, during which time, The Sun can exist and die 4 times.

The clock is an optical lattice clock, using 40,000 strontium atoms trapped in a one-dimensional lattice. Each tick of the clock is a transition between the energy levels of an electron in an atom.

The team has been developing this clock for many years, with an accuracy that conventional atomic clocks using cesium atoms cannot achieve.

They have limited errors and systematic influences to improve the accuracy of the device. They hope to be able to measure time 10 times more accurately, even 100 times.

This type of clock could open the door to new discoveries, could be used to measure gravity in unprecedented detail and test the general theory of relativity.

Atomic clocks work by stimulating an atom's electrons to jump between different energy states.

The oscillation frequency of the atom is fixed and is used as a standard to measure time, creating absolute precision.

Currently, atomic clocks are widely used to determine UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) and are integrated in many electronic devices such as mobile phones and computers to ensure synchronization in time. Measure time.