Overview
- A UCLA-led team replaced fragile thorium-doped fluoride crystals with a thin thorium-229 layer electroplated onto stainless steel using a modified jewelry technique.
- Using roughly 1,000 times less isotope, the approach still enables laser excitation of the thorium-229 nuclear transition and yields a measurable current from emitted conversion electrons.
- The steel-based target is more robust and the electrical readout is experimentally straightforward, supporting miniaturization of future nuclear-clock components.
- Reducing thorium consumption addresses a key constraint, as only about 40 grams of usable thorium-229 are estimated to exist worldwide.
- The research, published in Nature with collaborators in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany and supported by the National Science Foundation, is viewed by outside experts as a path to compact, high-stability timing for GPS-denied navigation and critical infrastructure.