The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) just recently announced the NIST-F4, its fourth generation atomic fountain clock. This revolutionary clock will further advance time signal precision for critical worldwide applications including navigation, communication and much more. The focused research team that created NIST-F4, the fourth fountain clock produced by NIST. That’s in keeping with its predecessors, NIST-F2 and NIST-F3. There are fewer than 20 cesium fountain clocks in operation around the world. NIST-F4 is proud to be one of a very few, primarily controlled by only 10 countries.
The introduction of NIST-F4 is of great importance for many industries. This extends to telecommunications infrastructure, transportation systems, financial trading platforms, and data center operations themselves. Accurate timekeeping underpins our banking and telecommunications industries, where microseconds can make millions of dollars difference.
A Long Journey to Precision
In 2016 NIST-F4 had to go through a cost/ time intense relocation process to move to a new building. The team then painstakingly restored and tested it to ensure its functionality. Gerginov, a member of the research team, remarked on the painstaking nature of this process:
“is a slow process because we have to be very conservative.”
It took the team months of painstaking measurements, making sure that things like air conditioning and the neighbor’s pets didn’t interfere with the clock’s precision. This degree of care and precision speaks to the necessity of keeping the integrity of this level of high-precision technology.
NIST-F4 uses a design that is very inventive. Once in the machine, it cools thousands of cesium atoms to just above absolute zero with lasers. This process allows atomic wave cycles to be detected. More specifically, a detector counts 9,192,631,770 wave cycles of finely tuned microwaves coming off cesium atoms. This precise, special measurement is important because cesium atoms have been the internationally agreed standard for defining the second since 1967.
Setting New Standards in Timekeeping
NIST-F4 reached unprecedented levels of accuracy in its frequency measurement. It records precision levels down to 2.2 parts in 10 to the 16th—which is 10 million billion. The clock itself runs more than 90% of the time, so that either NIST-F4 or its predecessor, NIST-F3, is always available for use. Combined, they keep an unyielding beat essential to keeping the world in sync.
Donley, a key figure in the project, emphasized the significance of this breakthrough:
“The success of NIST-F4 has renewed NIST’s global leadership in primary frequency standards.”
He praised the team’s efforts in restoring the clock’s operations:
“Vladi and Greg used ingenuity and skill to restore the reliable, world-class operation of NIST’s atomic fountains.”
Such improvements increase not just accuracy, but the overall integrity of systems that are increasingly dependent on highly accurate time sources.
The Impact on Everyday Life
The scope of the implications of a better atomic fountain clock goes way beyond just ticking time in a new scientific novelty. On a daily basis, people and systems rely on NIST-F4’s time signals billions of times. They assist in time stamping electronic financial transactions that amount to hundreds of billions of dollars and help set our clocks and watches. Liz Donley noted the vast scope of NIST-F4’s influence:
“used literally billions of times each day for everything from setting clocks and watches to ensuring the accurate time stamping of hundreds of billions of dollars of electronic financial transactions.”
Yet, in a world that is becoming more and more dependent on technology and real-time data exchange, accurate timekeeping is crucial. Fountain clocks like NIST-F4 were intended to be extremely accurate. In the words of Hoth,
“Fountain clocks are supposed to be very boring,”
indicating that their use is supposed to be stable and non-emotional.