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  • Open Access

International System of Units-traceable temperature calibration based on optical lattice clocks

Jin Cao, Benquan Lu, Xiaotong Lu*, and Hong Chang†

  • *Contact author: luxiaotong@ntsc.ac.cn
  • †Contact author: changhong@ntsc.ac.cn
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 033260 – Published 17 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/4xmq-pfyv

Abstract

We present an International System of Units (SI)-traceable temperature calibration apparatus utilizing optical lattice clocks for precision metrology. The system employs a dual-blackbody radiation shield chamber with independent temperature control, enabling synchronous differential measurements of blackbody radiation (BBR)-induced frequency shifts in atomic ensembles. By correlating these shifts with chamber temperature, we propose absolute temperature determination traceable to the SI second through the optical clock frequency. Comprehensive uncertainty analysis demonstrates an absolute temperature uncertainty below 17 mK across the 200−350K range based on Sr87 optical lattice clock, representing an improvement of two orders of magnitude over current temperature measurements based on BBR-induced Rydberg state transitions. This advancement in primary thermometry offers significant improvements in precision, reproducibility, and versatility, with potential applications in metrology, fundamental physics, and industrial processes.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 033260– Published 17 September, 2025
  • Received 31 March 2025
  • Accepted 18 August 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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