David J. Wineland

Title

Single Atom Optical Clocks

Abstract

With the availability of spectrally pure lasers and ability to precisely measure optical frequencies, it appears the era of optical clocks has begun. At the expense of signal-to-noise ratio, at NIST we have primarily used single trapped ions because uncertainties in systematic effects are smallest, reaching 0.8 x 10-17. At this level, many effects, including those due to special and general relativity, must be calibrated and corrected for.