Achievement

With the IGERT cross-disciplinary training, we have made significant headway into microscale optical clocks for state-of-the-art timekeeping. Advances in optical physics are brought into engineering precision measurements and metrology, for ultrastable optical clocks and clockwork. In addition, we have examined ultracold molecule research. Starting with a cloud of laser cooled atoms, we have optimized an approach to optical production of diatomic molecules (strontium dimers), tightly trapped in an optical lattice at a microkelvin temperature for precision tests of quantum chemistry. Furthermore, we are implementing an optical technique of transferring the molecules into deeply bound vibrational modes, and demonstrating very narrow spectra that are suitable for implementing molecular time standards and for carrying out tests of fundamental physics such as gravity at nanometer scales.