Abstract
The state of development of frequency standards based on stored ions is reviewed. Several preliminary demonstrations of the concept have already shown a level of performance approaching that of today's cesium-beam standards (accuracy of one part in 1013). The potential for accurately measuring or reducing all known systematic effects suggests that frequency standards based on stored ions with inaccuracies of one part in 1015are obtainable and eventually they could be orders of magnitude better than this. This performance is a result of extremely high-Q resonances (e.g., millihertz linewidths at microwave frequencies) and a very small second-order Doppler shift which follows with the addition of techniques for ion cooling.

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