Spin-1/2 Optical Lattice Clock

We experimentally investigate an optical clock based on (171)Yb (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 3.4x10(-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 518 295 836 590 865.2(0.7) Hz.