Eric Burt of IEEE

The advent of trapping and cooling of atoms and ions has revolutionized atomic clocks.  The resulting unprecedented accuracy and stability has enabled many applications as well as fundamental science.  Room temperature microwave trapped ion atomic clocks are particularly well suited for autonomous operation in deep space, primarily for deep space navigation applications.  Progress on this technology has been in three areas:  1) ultra-stable clocks that can operate autonomously, 2) space clocks, and 3) miniature clocks.  This talk will focus on the first two applications.  Over the years various refinements in this technology, including he linear ion trap, the multi-pole trap, and the compensated multi-pole trap, have led to state of the art continuously operating clock stability.  The talk will also describe this technology and how it was able to achieve its high degree of stability.  The presentation will also describe how this technology was adapted for operation in space, with the associated constraints on size and robustness, and how operation of this technology in space enables a new type of deep space navigation.  Finally this presentation will describe several scientific applications of this technology, including a measurement of the Hyperfine Anomaly in mercury ions, essentially a measure of the size of the nucleus new ways to place limits on fundamental constant variation, proposals to test general relativity, and ways in which this technology can enable radio science measurements used to better understand planetary atmospheres and gravitational fields.          

Biography:

Dr. Eric A Burt, Principal Member of Technical Staff, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

Eric Burt received a Bachelor of Science Degree with honors in mathematics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1979, a Masters of Science Degree in physics from the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington in 1990. and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Washington in 1995.  His Ph.D. thesis, supervised by Professor Warren Nagourney, was in the field of experimental atomic physics on the trapping and laser cooling of single indium ions.  From 1995 to 1997 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado, in Boulder, Colorado working with Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell on experiments with Bose-Einstein condensates including the first experiment to demonstrate a dual species condensate and the first experiment to demonstrate higher order (laser-like) coherence in condensate atoms.  From 1997 to 2001 he worked at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. developing one of the first operational laser cooled cesium fountain atomic clocks.  From 2001 to the present he has worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology most recently as a Principal Member of the Technical Staff.  His work at JPL has included development of both ion and laser cooled neutral atomic clocks and using atomic clocks to place limits on fundamental constant variation.  The work on trapped ion clocks culminated wit the recent launch of the Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC), the first trapped ion atomic clock to operate in space.  In 2015 he was awarded the NASA Groundbreaker award for his work in developing DSAC.  In 2020 he was awarded the NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal for his work on trap ion atomic clock technologies and DSAC.  In 2025 he was named the 2025-2026 IEEE UFFC Distinguished Lecturer for Frequency Control.  Dr. Burt is a member of the American Physical Society and former executive committee officer for the APS topical group on fundamental constants and precision measurement.  He is a senior member of the IEEE and a former IEEE Frequency Control Symposium General Chair, Technical Chair, and Vice Chair for Group 3.  

Email:

Address: , , , California, United States,