Transportable strontium lattice clock with $4\times 10^{-19}$ blackbody radiation shift uncertainty

Abstract

We describe a transportable optical lattice clock based on the ${}^1{\mathrm{S}}_0\to {}^3{\mathrm{P}}_0$ transition of lattice-trapped ${}^{87}$Sr atoms with a total systematic uncertainty of $2.1\times 10^{-18}$. The blackbody radiation shift, which is the leading systematic effect in many strontium lattice clocks, is controlled at the level of $4.0\times 10^{-19}$, as the atoms are interrogated inside a well-characterised, cold thermal shield. Using a transportable clock laser, the clock reaches a frequency instability of about $5\times 10^{-16}/\sqrt{\tau /\mathrm{s}}$, which enables fast reevaluations of systematic effects. By comparing this clock to the primary caesium fountain clocks CSF1 and CSF2 at Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, we measure the clock transition frequency with a fractional uncertainty of $1.9\times 10^{-16}$, in agreement with previous results. The clock was successfully transported and operated at different locations. It holds the potential to be used for geodetic measurements with centimetre-level or better height resolution and for accurate inter-institute frequency comparisons.