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Nature Physics 4, 910–911 (1 December 2008) | doi:10.1038/nphys1146

Optical lattice clocks: Keeping time in three dimensions

Chris Oates

Optical atomic clocks are rapidly moving from being clocks of the future to present-day devices, mainly thanks to advances in laser cooling, laser stabilization and optical frequency combs. Benefiting from their high oscillation frequencies, the best optical atomic clocks are now ten to a hundred times more precise than their microwave counterparts, which have traditionally been the workhorse for precision-timing applications such as global positioning systems.