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IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control

Microfabricated chip-scale rubidium plasma light source for miniature atomic clocks

Vinu Venkatraman, Yves Pétremand, C. Affolderbach, G. Mileti, Nico F. de Rooij, Herbert R. Shea

Published Mar 1, 2012• 11 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present the microfabrication and characterization of a low-power, chip-scale Rb plasma light source, designed for optical pumping in miniature atomic clocks. A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) configuration is used to ignite a Rb plasma in a micro-fabricated Rb vapor cell on which external indium electrodes were deposited. The device is electrically driven at frequencies between 1 and 36 MHz, and emits 140 μW of stable optical power while coupling less than 6 mW of electrical power to the discharge cell. Optical powers of up to 15 and 9 μW are emitted on the Rb D2 and D1 lines, respectively. Continuous operation of the light source for several weeks has been demonstrated, showing its capacity to maintain stable optical excitation of Rb atoms in chip-scale double-resonance atomic clocks.

DOI
10.1109/tuffc.2012.2214

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We present the microfabrication and characterization of a low-power, chip-scale Rb plasma light source, designed for optical pumping in miniature atomic clocks. A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) configuration is used to ignite a Rb plasma in a micro-fabricated Rb vapor cell on which external indium electrodes were deposited. The device is electrically driven at frequencies between 1 and 36 MHz, and emits 140 μW of stable optical power while coupling less than 6 mW of electrical power to the discharge cell. Optical powers of up to 15 and 9 μW are emitted on the Rb D2 and D1 lines, respectively. Continuous operation of the light source for several weeks has been demonstrated, showing its capacity to maintain stable optical excitation of Rb atoms in chip-scale double-resonance atomic clocks.
We report on the micro-fabrication and characterization of a chip-scale plasma light source based on a Rubidium (Rb) vapor cell. The Rb plasma light source is intended for use as an integrated optical pump-light source in miniature double-resonance Rb atomic clocks. The RF plasma is capacitively coupled using external electrodes, and the light source is impedance matched to the source for frequencies between 1 and 36 MHz. Rb vapor cells have been previously developed as reference cells for atomic clocks but not as light sources. This is the first reported Rb plasma emitted from a chip-scale device. Stable light emission is observed for over 18 days.
Miniature (<few cm3) vapor-cell based devices using optical pumping of alkali atoms, such as atomic clocks and magnetometers, today mostly employ vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers as pump light sources. Here, we report on the demonstration of optical pumping in a microfabricated alkali vapor resonance cell using (1) a microfabricated Rb discharge lamp light source, as well as (2) a conventional glass-blown Rb discharge lamp. The microfabricated Rb lamp cell is a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) light source, having the same inner cell volume of around 40 mm3 as that of the resonance cell, both filled with suitable buffer gases. A miniature (∼2 cm3 volume) test setup based on the Mz magnetometer interrogation technique was used for observation of optical-radiofrequency double-resonance signals, proving the suitability of the microfabricated discharge lamp to introduce efficient optical pumping. The pumping ability of this light source was found to be comparable to or even better than that of a conventional glass-blown lamp. The reported results indicate that the micro-fabricated DBD discharge lamp has a high potential for the development of a new class of miniature atomic clocks, magnetometers, and quantum sensors.
Recently, a low-power, mm-scale (~0.3 cm3) Rb dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) lamp was demonstrated, in view of the development of a chip-scale atomic clock based on the traditional double-resonance (DR) interrogation scheme. Here, we report on the demonstration of optical pumping in a micro-fabricated Rb vapor cell (~0.3 cm3), using such a DBD Rb lamp as a pump light source. As a first step, we demonstrate Zeeman optical pumping in the Mz magnetometer configuration and observe the DR error signals. Comparative studies between DBD lamp and glass-blown (GB) lamp on the intensity noise and the DR error signals were performed. These results show that the performances of DBD lamp are comparable to those of a conventional glass-blown lamp, which indicates a high potential of the DBD lamp for the development of miniature atomic clocks, magnetometers and quantum sensors.
We present first results on a laser-pumped, double resonance (DR) Rubidium atomic clock, based on micro-fabricated Rb vapour cells. The study aims towards a miniature atomic clock based on DR, using a low-power laser as pump light source and a miniaturized microwave coupling structure (that will replace the bulky microwave cavity employed in today's much bigger Rb clocks). Good signal amplitude, low background light level, and no need for GHz laser modulation are among the advantages of this approach.
Nowadays, the portable atomic clocks with small size and low power consumption have attracted much attention. With the development of the coherent population trapping (CPT) and the micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technologies, it is possible to fabricate the miniature atomic clocks with power consumption less than 100mW. Researchers have already made great progress in the miniaturization of VCSELs, RF circuits, and photodiodes, which are the key technologies of the chip-scale atomic clock (CSAC). However, the fabrication of micro alkali atomic vapor cells is still to be improved. In this article, we describe the fabrication of micro Rb atomic vapor cells with inner dimensions of 3 mm length and 3 mm radius using anodic bonding and chemical reaction between BaN6and RbCl. The optical absorption and CPT resonances of the cells were measured slightly above the room temperature. In this condition, the consumption in the temperature control will be very low. Moreover, the long life (more than four years) of the cells makes it possible to use them in CSACs.