Towards the realization of compact and portable nuclear clocks

The low-energy excited state of thorium-229 (229Th) isotope nucleus has recently gained much attention owing to it being an ideal candidate for ultra-precise nuclear clocks. Building such high-precision clocks requires an acute understanding of the excitation and de-excitation state of the nucleus. In this view, researchers have designed 229Th-doped vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) transparent CaF2 crystals. They excited it with X-rays to control the isomeric state population and observed radiative decay in a closed chemical environment. https://ift.tt/XPrfxT9