Progress on a 171Yb-Based Active Optical Atomic Clock

SummaryWe present our progress on the construction of a
¹⁷¹
Yb-based active optical atomic clock. The ytterbium (Yb) atoms, initially in a collimated thermal beam generated in an oven, are decelerated using a Zeeman slower to the capture velocity (~ 10 ms
^-1
) for a magneto-optical trap on the
¹
S
0
→
³
P
1
transition at 556 nm. This allows us to generate an ensemble of N >10
⁶
atoms at temperatures below 100 μK, which will be transported using an optical conveyor belt to an ultra-stable (σ
y
~ 10
^-13
) cavity of finesse on the order of 10
⁴
. Here, the atoms will be prepared in order to generate a superradiant emission which will serve as the frequency reference on the
¹
S
0
→
³
P
0
clock transition in
¹⁷¹
Yb.