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IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement

Microwave interrogation of cesium atoms cooled in isotropic light

Constance Valentin, Emmanuel Guillot, C. Guillemot, P. Petit, N. Dimarcq

Published Jan 1, 2001• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Describes here a configuration of an atomic clock using a source of cesium atoms cooled with isotropic light. This three-dimensional (3-D)-cooling scheme yields a number of atoms of nearly 10/sup 9/ with a temperature below 100 /spl mu/K. These values are suitable for metrological applications. We present the preliminary results obtained and give a first estimation of the frequency performances for this kind of atomic clock.

DOI
10.1109/19.963188

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Describes here a configuration of an atomic clock using a source of cesium atoms cooled with isotropic light. This three-dimensional (3-D)-cooling scheme yields a number of atoms of nearly 10/sup 9/ with a temperature below 100 /spl mu/K. These values are suitable for metrological applications. We present the preliminary results obtained and give a first estimation of the frequency performances for this kind of atomic clock.
Our aim is to use cold atoms not for reducing instability or inaccuracy in the range of 10/sup -16/ or better, but to use them for reducing the size of atomic clocks. The key idea of HORACE is to fold in a microwave cavity every zone of the atomic resonator of a standard clock: zones of cooling and atomic preparation, zone of interrogation and zone of detection. Then the cell of HORACE has to be a microwave cavity as well as an optical cavity. Thus cooling of cesium atoms can only be obtained by isotropic cooling light generated inside it. In this paper, we first expose the main features of HORACE and two different configurations. Metrological aspects as well as the way the atoms would be efficiently cooled are then developed. A preliminary validation of HORACE is also demonstrated.
We present a compact cold-atom clock configuration where isotropic laser cooling, microwave interrogation, and clock signal detection are successively performed inside a spherical microwave cavity. For ground operation, a typical Ramsey fringe width of 20 Hz has been demonstrated, limited by the atom cloud's free fall in the cavity. The isotropic cooling light's disordered properties provide a large and stable number of cold atoms, leading to a high signal-to-noise ratio limited by atomic shot noise. A relative frequency stability of $2.2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}13}{\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2}$ has been achieved, averaged down to $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}15}$ after $5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{3}$ s of integration. Development of such a high-performance compact clock is of major relevance for on-board applications, such as satellite-positioning systems. As a cesium clock, it opens the door to a new generation of compact primary standards and timekeeping devices.
Sub-Doppler laser cooling is studied in an optically polished microwave cavity used as a reflecting cell. Light potential wells due to the speckle field in the cell make Sisyphus cooling mechanisms possible. For a 1 s capture time, about 10/sup 8/ cesium atoms are cooled at temperatures in the microkelvin range from thermal vapor. These results are discussed and compared with the basic theoretical model involving two laser beams lin /spl perp/ lin polarized. For a microwave clock using such cold atoms, the pulsed operation is precised and the main frequency shifts are evaluated. The short term relative frequency stability is expected to be lower than 10/sup -12//spl tau//sup - 1/2 /.
Optical atomic clocks with fractional uncertainties around and below 10−17 [1] and fractional instabilities at one second interrogation time of below 10−15 [2] have outperformed the best microwave clocks like the cesium atomic clock. In optical atomic clocks a highly stable laser is used to interrogate optical transitions in laser-cooled atoms, ions, or molecules. The increase in accuracy and stability of the optical atomic clocks results from the increased line quality factor Q= ν/Δν given by the five orders of magnitude higher frequency of optical transitions as compared to the transition relevant in the microwave domain. To utilize this potential it is furthermore necessary to realize a suitable narrow linewidth of the interrogated line. The linewidth of any optical transition is given by the different broadening mechanisms of the respective quantum transition relevant for particular interrogation process as well as by the coherence properties of the interrogating laser.