Spin-1/2 optical lattice clock

We experimentally investigate an optical clock based on Yb171 (I=1/2) atoms confined in an optical lattice. We have evaluated all known frequency shifts to the clock transition, including a density-dependent collision shift, with a fractional uncertainty of 3.4×10-16, limited principally by uncertainty in the blackbody radiation Stark shift. We measured the absolute clock transition frequency relative to the NIST-F1 Cs fountain clock and find the frequency to be 518295836590865.2(0.7)Hz.