This Chinese crystal can help in navigation without GPS
What's the story
Researchers in Xinjiang, China, have developed a groundbreaking crystal that can generate the ultraviolet light required for future thorium nuclear clocks. The innovation could one day enable submarines and deep-space probes to navigate without GPS. The fluorinated borate compound was able to push laser light to an unprecedented 145.2 nanometers (nm), meeting a key requirement for ultra-precise portable clocks being developed globally.
Technological advancement
New crystal beats older record set in the 1990s
The new crystal has surpassed the previous record set by potassium beryllium fluoroborate, a crystal developed in China in the 1990s. The older crystal could only reach about 150nm, just short of the 148.3nm target needed for these ultra-precise clocks. The research was published in Advanced Materials, and was led by Pan Shilie at Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry.
Clock technology
Nuclear clocks can 1 day replace atomic clocks
Nuclear clocks, unlike atomic clocks that use electrons to keep time, rely on vibrations inside an atomic nucleus. This makes them less susceptible to environmental changes and enables much higher precision. The thorium-229 nuclear clock uses the thorium atoms, a laser to probe them, and a detector to read the signal. The laser has to be tuned to a specific wavelength for it to "tick" the nucleus with timing set by how regularly it responds.