For the first time, scientists have managed to switch the nucleus of a thorium atom from one state to another using a laser, an effect that can be used for high-precision measurements and has made it possible to create the world’s first nuclear clock .
The study, led by Professor Thorsten Schumm of the Technical University of Vienna, was published on Wednesday (4), in the journal Nature.
Every clock needs something to act as a timekeeper — like the regular movement of the pendulum in a grandfather clock. Today’s high-precision clocks often use the oscillation of electromagnetic waves, such as a laser beam, but even the frequency of a laser can change slightly over time, needing to be adjusted.
“That’s why, in addition to the laser, you need a quantum system that reacts extremely selectively to a very specific laser frequency,” Schumm explained. Atomic clocks use cesium or strontium atoms, for example, so that if the laser frequency changes, the atoms are no longer excited efficiently and the laser can be readjusted.
If the nucleus of an atom could be used in this same way, the clock would be even more accurate, according to scientists’ predictions. Atomic nuclei are much smaller than atoms and therefore react less to external disturbances.
While the world’s first nuclear clock has yet to surpass the accuracy of existing atomic clocks, Schumm expects it to do so within the next two to three years.
“Our goal was to develop a new technology. Once it’s there, the increase in quality comes naturally, that’s always been the case,” he explained. “The first cars were not faster than horse-drawn carriages. It was all about introducing a new concept. And that’s exactly what we’ve achieved now with the nuclear clock.”
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This content was originally published in Scientists present the world’s first nuclear clock on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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