Spin squeezing in optical lattice clocks via lattice- based QND measurements

Quantum projection noise will soon limit the best achievable precision of optical atomic clocks based on lattice-confined neutral atoms. Squeezing the collective atomic pseudo-spin via measurement of the clock state populations during Ramsey interrogation suppresses the projection noise. We show here that the lattice laser field can be used to perform ideal quantum nondemolition measurements without clock shifts or decoherence and explore the feasibility of such an approach in theory with the lattice field confined in a ringresonator. Detection of the motional sideband due to the atomic vibration in the lattice wells can yield signal sizes a hundredfold above the projection noise limit.