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Highly charged ion used in a new class of optical clock

An optical clock based on a highly charged ion has been demonstrated for the first time. The results pave the way for extremely accurate highly charged-ion clocks that could have applications in both timekeeping and the further exploration of fundamental physics.

This is a summary of: King, S. A. et al. An optical atomic clock based on a highly charged ion. Nature 611, 43–47 (2022).

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03329-9

‘Expert opinion’ is published under a CC BY 4.0 licence.

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