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Nuclear clocks could use electrical signals to keep time

The emission of photons by excited nuclei has been explored for timekeeping and sensing, but nuclear processes that eject electrons offer practical advantages.
By
  1. Xiwen Zhang

    1. Xiwen Zhang is in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA.

  2. Olga Kocharovskaya

    1. Olga Kocharovskaya is in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA.

Atomic clocks keep time using the energy transitions of electrons in atoms. They have achieved astounding precision, corresponding to errors of less than one second over the age of the Universe1. It has been proposed that clocks based on nuclear transitions might surpass this precision — these ‘nuclear clocks’ might also operate under less stringent conditions and could be used to construct highly sensitive sensors. Most efforts to develop them have focused on nuclear transitions that can be detected because they emit light. Now, writing in Nature, Elwell et al.2 report the manipulation and detection of nuclear transitions that cause electrons to be ejected. This approach broadens the range of materials that can host nuclear transitions for timekeeping and sensing, and provides practical advantages over other nuclei-based platforms.

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Nature 648, 285-286 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03732-y

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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