ROCKY MOUNTAIN SECTION OPTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
                              &
           IEEE LASERS AND ELECTROOPTICS SOCIETY


                       March Meeting

Date:  Thursday, 21 Mar. 2002
Time:  7:00 PM refreshments, 7:30 PM talk
Place: National Center for Atmospheric Research
       Mesa Lab
       1850 Table Mesa Drive, Boulder, CO
       Damon Room


Title: Optical Clocks: Timekeeping for the Future

       Dr. Chris Oates
       NIST
       Time and Frequency Division
       Boulder CO


Abstract:

As a result of advances in laser cooling, laser 
stabilization, and frequency metrology, we are now entering a 
new era of atomic clocks.  These clocks, which use optical 
transitions in atoms, have the potential for orders-of-
magnitude improvement over current microwave time standards.  
In this talk I will first describe the exciting innovations 
that have made these new clocks viable. Then I will focus on 
our work with an optical clock that is based on laser-cooled 
neutral Ca atoms.


Biography:

Dr. Oates received a B. S. in Physics from Stanford in 1984 
and then spent two years in the Caribbean with Peace Corps as 
a high school science teacher. He completed his doctoral 
studies at CU in the laboratory of Jan Hall, where he worked 
on laser trapping and cooling. Since 1995 he has worked in 
the Time and Frequency Division at NIST, developing optical 
clocks based on laser-cooled neutral atoms.