Probing Time Dilation in Coulomb Crystals in a High-Precision Ion Trap

Optical clocks based on trapped ions can achieve systematic frequency uncertainties below 10^-18, enabling relativistic geodesy and precise tests of fundamental physics. However, today's single-ion clocks require averaging times of over a week to resolve frequencies at this level, and no multi-ion clock has been implemented, due to difficulties in controlling ion motion. The authors present an ion-trap array that confines up to 100 clock ions with time-dilation shifts in the low-10^-19 range, and measure the driven motion of individual ions within an ion crystal. These results point to the next generation of ion clocks, and the realization of clock schemes that have languished.