This article reports on the characterization of a compact coherent-population-trapping (CPT) Cs vapor cell atomic clock using the push-pull optical pumping technique. This method allows to detect high-contrast CPT resonances on the 0-0 magnetic-field insensitive clock transition. The clock short-term fractional frequency stability is measured to be 3×10−13 τ−1/2 up to 100 s averaging time, in correct agreement with the signal-to-noise ratio limit. These results are among the best performances ever reported for a CPT-based clock. The noise budget is detailed. A preliminary study is reported to evaluate limitations to the clock mid-term frequency stability. The clock performances are found to be presently mainly limited in the mid-term by laser power effects.
This article reports on the characterization of a compact coherent-population-trapping (CPT) Cs vapor cell atomic clock using the push-pull optical pumping technique. This method allows to detect high-contrast CPT resonances on the 0-0 magnetic-field insensitive clock transition. The clock short-term fractional frequency stability is measured to be 3×10−13 τ−1/2 up to 100 s averaging time, in correct agreement with the signal-to-noise ratio limit. These results are among the best performances ever reported for a CPT-based clock. The noise budget is detailed. A preliminary study is reported to evaluate limitations to the clock mid-term frequency stability. The clock performances are found to be presently mainly limited in the mid-term by laser power effects.
This article reports on the development and short-term fractional frequency stability of a continuous-regime (CW) Cs vapor cell atomic clock based on coherent population trapping (CPT). The push-pull optical pumping technique is used to increase the number of atoms that participate to the clock transition, yielding a typical CPT resonance contrast of 25% for a CPT linewidth of about 450 Hz. The clock short-term fractional frequency stability is measured to be 3 x 10 -13 τ -1/2 up to 100 seconds averaging time, in correct agreement with the signal-to-noise ratio limit. The mid-term frequency stability results are currently mainly limited by laser power effects. The detection of high-contrast narrow Raman-Ramsey fringes is demonstrated with this setup by making the atoms interact with a light pulse sequence.
We demonstrate a high-performance coherent-population-trapping (CPT) Cs vapor cell atomic clock using the push-pull optical pumping technique in the pulsed regime, allowing the detection of high-contrast and narrow Ramsey-CPT fringes. The impact of several experimental parameters onto the clock resonance and short-term fractional frequency stability, including the laser power, the cell temperature, and the Ramsey sequence parameters, has been investigated. We observe and explain the existence of a slight dependence on laser power of the central Ramsey-CPT fringe line-width in the pulsed regime. We report also that the central fringe line-width is commonly narrower than the expected Ramsey line-width given by 1/(2TR), with TR the free-evolution time, for short values of TR. The clock demonstrates a short-term fractional frequency stability at the level of 2.3×10−13 τ−1/2 up to 100 s averaging time, mainly limited by the laser amplitude modulation noise. Comparable performances are obtained in the conventional continuous wave regime, with the use of an additional laser power stabilization setup. The pulsed interaction allows to reduce significantly the clock frequency sensitivity to laser power variations, especially for high values of TR. This pulsed CPT clock, ranking among the best microwave vapor cell atomic frequency standards, could find applications in telecommunication, instrumentation, defense or satellite-based navigation systems.
We demonstrate a vapor-cell atomic-clock prototype based on a continuous-wave interrogation and double-modulation coherent population trapping (DM-CPT) technique. The DM-CPT technique uses a synchronous modulation of polarization and the relative phase of a bichromatic laser beam in order to increase the number of atoms trapped in a dark state, i.e., a nonabsorbing state. The narrow resonance, observed in the transmission of a Cs vapor cell, is used as a narrow frequency discriminator in an atomic clock. A detailed characterization of the CPT resonance versus numerous parameters is reported. A short-term fractional-frequency stability of 3.2×10−13τ−1/2 up to a 100-s averaging time is measured. These performances are more than one order of magnitude better than industrial Rb clocks and are comparable to those of the best laboratory-prototype vapor-cell clocks. The noise-budget analysis shows that the short- and midterm frequency stability is mainly limited by the power fluctuations of the microwave used to generate the bichromatic laser. These preliminary results demonstrate that the DM-CPT technique is well suited for the development of a high-performance atomic clock, with the potential compact and robust setup due to its linear architecture. This clock could find future applications in industry, telecommunications, instrumentation, or global navigation satellite systems.
Vapor cell atomic clocks exhibit reduced frequency stability for averaging time between about one hundred and a few thousand seconds. Here we report a study on the impact of the main parameters on the mid-to-long term instability of a buffer-gas vapor cell Cs clock, based on coherent population trapping (CPT). The CPT signal is observed on the Cs D1 line transmission, using a double Λ scheme and a Ramsey interrogation technique. The effects on the clock frequency of the magnetic field, the cell temperature, and the laser intensities are reported. We show in particular that the laser intensity shift is temperature dependent. Along with the laser intensity ratio and laser polarization properties, this is one of the most important parameters.
We report on a theoretical study and experimental characterization of coherent-population-trapping (CPT) resonances in buffer-gas-filled vapor cells with push-pull optical pumping (PPOP) on Cs D1 line. We point out that the push-pull interaction scheme is identical to the so-called $\mathrm{lin}\ensuremath{\perp}\mathrm{lin}$ polarization scheme. Expressions of the relevant dark states, as well as of absorption, are reported. The experimental setup is based on the combination of a distributed feedback diode laser, a pigtailed intensity Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator (MZ EOM) for optical sideband generation and a Michelson-like interferometer. A microwave technique to stabilize the transfer function operating point of the MZ EOM is implemented for proper operation. A CPT resonance contrast as high as 78 is reported in a cm-scale cell for the magnetic-field-insensitive clock transition. The impact of the laser intensity on the CPT-clock signal key parameters (linewidth, contrast, linewidth/contrast ratio) is reported for three different cells with various dimensions and buffer-gas contents. The potential of the PPOP technique for the development of high-performance atomic vapor-cell clocks is discussed.
We report on measurements of frequency shifts in a microwave cesium vapor cell atomic clock based on coherent population trapping (CPT). The dependence of the clock frequency on numerous experimental parameters, such as the laser power, the laser frequency, the microwave power, the cell temperature, the static magnetic field, but also the temperature of some key components, or the translation and rotation of critical wave plates and optical elements, is investigated. The stability budget of the clock frequency at one day is reported and discussed. This study constitutes a solid database for the future demonstration of a CPT-based cell clock with enhanced mid- and long-term stability performances.