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.