A thorium-229 optical nuclear clock with feedback loop

October 7, 2026 · 3:00 pm 4 sources

Image: Nature

Coverage

Wires & papers of record

• A thorium-229 optical nuclear clock with feedback loop
  Nature · October 7, 2026 00:00
  Nature, Published online: 07 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-11084-4 A thorium-229 nuclear clock is realized by stabilizing a continuous-wave laser to the 148-nm nuclear excitation with a rapid feedback loop based on absorption spectroscopy.
• A nuclear clock synchronized to 229 Th
  Nature · October 7, 2026 00:00
  Nature, Published online: 07 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-11122-1 A nuclear clock synchronized to 229Th establishes laser-addressed nuclei as operational clock references and 229Th:CaF2 as a stable, reproducible solid-state platform for compact nuclear clocks and nuclear quantum sensors.
• In Vienna and Beijing, the First Nuclear Clocks Begin to Tick
  The New York Times · October 7, 2026 15:00
  By measuring the squishing and unsquishing of thorium-229 nuclei, two teams created a new type of clock that could someday beat the precision of atomic clocks.

More coverage

• The first stand-alone nuclear clock is ticking in Vienna
  Phys.org · October 7, 2026 15:00
  For decades, researchers around the world have been working toward this goal—and now major advances are following in rapid succession. Vienna is now home to the world's first nuclear clock that stabilizes itself, as atomic clocks typically do. This system has been shown to remain stable for more…