Nuclear clock
Clock based on an atomic nucleus instead of an atom / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A nuclear clock or nuclear optical clock is a notional clock that would use the frequency of a nuclear transition as its reference frequency,[1] in the same manner as an atomic clock uses the frequency of an electronic transition in an atom's shell. Such a clock is expected to be more accurate than the best current atomic clocks by a factor of about 10, with an achievable accuracy approaching the 10−19 level.[2] The only nuclear state suitable for the development of a nuclear clock using existing technology is thorium-229m, a nuclear isomer of thorium-229 and the lowest-energy nuclear isomer known. With an energy of 8.35574(3) eV,[3][4] this corresponds to a wavelength of 148.3821(5) nm in the vacuum ultraviolet region, making it accessible to laser excitation. A comprehensive review can be found in reference.[5]