University of Hamburg 
ESR 2: Yb lattice clocks
In this project the ESR will realise an Ytterbium based optical lattice clock and exploit its properties for high precision spectroscopy and interferometry. The purpose of these efforts is twofold: Optical lattice clocks still are a very recent scientific development and require further research efforts to establish them as time keeping devices. Thus, we first of all strive after pushing the state of the art in optical frequency metrology to the ultimate limits. Second, in the context of matter wave interferometry, the properties of the Yb atoms can be exploited to perform high precision probing of many-body interaction effects in optical lattices. In a second step, we will therefore combine different atomic species in an optical lattice setup and use the narrow clock line as a precision probe for interaction induced line shifts. By combining these two efforts, the ESR will both be trained on state of the art frequency standards which are expected to become highly relevant on a industrial basis within the next few years with forefront research in atom interferometry.