Lattice-induced non-adiabatic frequency shifts in optical lattice clocks

Abstract

We consider the frequency shift in optical lattice clocks which arises from the coupling of the electronic motion to the atomic motion within the lattice. For the simplest of 3-D lattice geometries this coupling is shown to only affect clocks based on blue-detuned lattices. We have estimated the size of this shift for the prospective strontium lattice clock operating at the 390 nm blue-detuned magic wavelength. The resulting fractional frequency shift is found to be on the order of $10^{-18}$ and is largely overshadowed by the electric quadrupole shift. For lattice clocks based on more complex geometries or other atomic systems, this shift could potentially be a limiting factor in clock accuracy.