To overview |
|
| | |||
| Carl Zeiss Research Award |
| The most Accurate Clocks in the World – with Lasers and Frequency Combs | Downloads and Links | ||
 | RTF Documents
english (40 KB)Further Information 
Deutsche Version
| ||
| MUNICH/Germany, OBERKOCHEN/Germany, 20.06.2007. Jun Ye is only 40 years old, but he is already considered one of the greats of the optical scene. Born in Shanghai, China, he now holds US citizenship, is a physics professor and teaches at the University of Colorado at Boulder where one of his idols also calls home: John Hall who together with Theodor Hänsch (Director at the May Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching) has already reached the summit of scientific excellence and was honored with the 2005 Nobel Prize for Physics. The royal Swedish Academy of Sciences presented the highest scientific laurels for the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, or the color measurement of light of atoms and molecules with extreme accuracy. Jun Ye has followed in his footsteps and has now received the 2007 Carl Zeiss Research Award.  Jun Ye, who, like Hall, performs research at the JILA of the University of Colorado and at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (both in Boulder), expanded on the work of Hall and Hänsch and enhanced optical measuring technology. For his experimental work in femtosecond lasers and frequency combs, he was honored with one of the world’s most renowned awards in the field of optics, which will be presented at the LASER 2007. World of Photonics international trade fair. This award, which carries a €25,000 cash prize, is presented by the Ernst Abbe Fund in the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (a joint initiative of German industries to promote science and higher education) every two years for outstanding performances in international optical research. It alternates with the Otto Schott Research Award for outstanding performances in glass research. The frequency comb technique permits the simple measurement of the oscillation of light with maximum accuracy for the first time. “We are now so far along that we can count 500,000 billion oscillations a second,” emphasizes Hänsch. Jun Ye took advantage of this situation and catapulted himself to the global summit with the development of frequency-stabilized lasers and the measuring technology based on it. With his work group, he sent a message in the global competition for the best atomic clock: regarding precision and stability, his measuring set-ups are among the world’s leading equipment in which specific optical transitions in strontium atoms are used. Experts predict that this clock can measure time more precisely than the cesium clock at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) which specifies time and frequency similar to the German National Metrology Institute (PTB). And that is pretty accurate considering that the chronological deviation is one second in approximately 70 million years. “We use a cloud of extremely cold strontium atoms that tick extremely fast. A second laser then counts the ticks,” explains Jun Ye who hopes that his clock will be better than that at the NIST by a factor of 100. Unimaginably precise clocks improve navigation More exact clocks are not just the toys of physicists. They are very valuable in many areas. “This is particularly true in navigation at great distances. The more accurate the clocks used here, the more precise the determination of the location,” explains Dr. Augustin Siegel, Senior Vice President of Corporate Research and Technology at Carl Zeiss. The possible applications extend from better GPS systems to the determination of distant spaceships. For example, the Voyager 1 probe launched 30 years which has now left our solar system. Furthermore, frequency combs are invaluable and indispensable tools for ultrafast sciences. Increasingly shorter flashes are required, particularly through the penetration of research into the area of single atoms and molecules typical of the nano cosmos. Chemical reactions start with the movement of electrons – and they only need attoseconds, i.e. a quintillionth of a second (or a billionth of a billionth of a second). To make it more understandable: one minute has more attoseconds than minutes have past since the big bang. Femtosecond lasers may be slower by a factor of 1000, but they are still fast enough to observe the movement of atoms in molecules using physical, chemical or biological effects. “Until now, we have been able to identify single atoms. The new type of spectroscopy enables us to also measure molecules with unbelievable precision for the first time,” emphasizes While the previous Carl Zeiss Research Awards were also presented for very application-oriented subjects such as photodynamic therapy on the eye or the development of blue light diodes, this year’s subject clearly deals with basic research. “There is still no concept for an industrial application of the Jun Ye’s work. We were much more fascinated by the speed and the experimental skills with which our laureate expanded on the work of the Nobel Prize winners and applied it to research-relevant areas,” says Siegel explaining the decision of the jury. Numerous additional awards already received by Jun Ye very clearly show that his idols may have some very large shoes, but they are obviously not too big for the likeable American.   Insights into new worlds: the frequency comb technique in interaction with femtosecond lasers enables better navigation for spaceships using ultra-precise clocks, such as implied here with the Voyager 1 probe that launched 30 years ago and has now left our solar system. It also delivers new spectroscopy methods that generate highly accurate fingerprints of molecules (the image shows an amino acid between the frequency combs). Silke Schmid Corporate Communications Phone: +49 7364 20-8208 Fax: +49 7364 20-3122 E-Mail: 
s.schmid@zeiss.deNumber: 108/07 CC Number of Words: 1021 Number of Signs: 7091 |
|