Recent progress towards a solid-state nuclear clock with Thorium-229

Abstract:

Among all known isotopes, Thorium-229 has the lowest nuclear excited
state, only 8.4 eV above the ground state. This so-called "isomer" is
accessible to VUV laser excitation and has been proposed as a robust
clock transition for future frequency standards. The talk will present
most recent progress on measuring the exact nuclear excitation energy
and the isomer lifetime in a solid-state environment.