Researchers announced on Tuesday the creation of a more accurate way to measure time using an alternative to regular atomic timekeepers, according to reports.
"In our clocks we use laser beams. Laser beams oscillate much faster than microwave radiation, and in a sense we divide time in much shorter intervals so we can measure time more precisely," Jérôme Lodewyck of the Paris Observatory told BBC News.
The time-measurement devices are called optical lattice clocks (OCLs), and reportedly lost one second every 300 million years, which is three times more accurate than current atomic clocks, BBC News reports.
The scientists published the study in the journal Nature, offering a new perspective to tell time.
"Since 1967, the second has been defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 oscillations of the microwave radiation absorbed or emitted when a caesium atom jumps between two particular energy states," Nature said in a news release.
Precision is key in the new findings of time measurement. During the study, the research team also compared two OCLs with each other. According to reports, they found the OCLs were in agreement, and their measurement of time was stable.
"[Researchers] say that this test of consistency is essential if OLCs are to be used to redefine the second, which is currently defined according to a different type of atomic clocks," Nature said.
Christopher Oates, a specialist in atomic-clock time standards at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, explained to Nature how meticulous researchers were during the study.
"Very beautiful and careful work, which gives grounds for confidence in the optical lattice clock and in optical clocks generally," Oates said in a news release.
Though the OCLs are new, the first of their kind were introduced about a decade ago. According to Nature, they are not as precise as trapped-ion clocks, but still have the potential to be the most accurate way to measure time.
