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Joint Conference of the European Frequency and Time Forum and IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium (EFTF/IFCS)

A novel absorption resonance for atomic clocks

David F. Phillips, Irina V. Novikova, Sergei A. Zibrov, Christopher L. Smallwood, А. В. Тайченачев, Valeriy I. Yudin, Ronald Lee Walsworth, Alexander S. Zibrov

Published Jan 18, 2006• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report an experimental study of an all-optical three-photon-absorption resonance (known as an "N-resonance") and discuss its potential application as an alternative to atomic clocks based on coherent population trapping (CPT). We present measurements of the N-resonance contrast, width and light shift for /sup 87/Rb under various conditions including both D/sub 1/ and D/sub 2/ optical transitions. Under conditions such that first-order light shifts cancel, we observe promising short-term frequency stability (/spl sim/ 1.5 /spl times/ 10/sup -11/ /spl tau//sub - 1/2 /) for an N-resonance on the Di transition of /sup 87/ Rb vapor.

DOI
10.1109/freq.2005.1574031

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We report an experimental study of an all-optical three-photon-absorption resonance (known as an "N-resonance") and discuss its potential application as an alternative to atomic clocks based on coherent population trapping (CPT). We present measurements of the N-resonance contrast, width and light shift for /sup 87/Rb under various conditions including both D/sub 1/ and D/sub 2/ optical transitions. Under conditions such that first-order light shifts cancel, we observe promising short-term frequency stability (/spl sim/ 1.5 /spl times/ 10/sup -11/ /spl tau//sub - 1/2 /) for an N-resonance on the Di transition of /sup 87/ Rb vapor.
We report an experimental study of an all-optical three-photon-absorption resonance (known as an ``NNN resonance'') and discuss its potential application as an alternative to atomic clocks based on coherent population trapping. We present measurements of the NNN-resonance contrast, width and light shift for the D1{D}_{1}D1​ line of 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb with varying buffer gases, and find good agreement with an analytical model of this resonance. The results suggest that NNN resonances are promising for atomic clock applications.
We report on the performance of the first table-top prototype atomic clock based on coherent population trapping (CPT) resonances with parallel linearly polarized optical fields (lin‖lin configuration). Our apparatus uses a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) tuned to the D1 line of 87Rb with the current modulation at the 87Rb hyperfine frequency. We demonstrate cancellation of the first-order light shift by the proper choice of rf modulation power and further improve our prototype clock stability by optimizing the parameters of the microwave lock loop. Operating in these optimal conditions, we measured a short-term fractional frequency stability (Allan deviation) 2×10−11τ−1/2 for observation times 1 s ≤ τ ≤ 20 s. This value is limited by large VCSEL phase noise and environmental temperature fluctuation. Further improvements in frequency stability should be possible with an apparatus designed as a dedicated lin‖lin CPT resonance clock with environmental impacts minimized.
An atomic clock system based on coherent population trapping (CPT) resonance in 85 Rb is reported, while most past works about the CPT clock are in 87 Rb. A new modulation method (full-hyperfine-frequency-splitting modulation) is presented to reduce the effect of light shift to improve the frequency stability of the CPT clock in 85 Rb. The experimental results show that the short-term frequency stability of the CPT clock in 85 Rb is in the order of 10 −10 /s and the long-term frequency stability can achieve 1.5 × 10 −11 /80000 s, which performs as well as 87 Rb in CPT resonance. This very good frequency stability performance associated with the low-cost and low-power properties of 85 Rb indicates that an atomic clock based on CPT in 85 Rb should be a promising candidate for making the chip scale atomic clock.
We present a joint theoretical and experimental characterization of the coherent population trapping (CPT) resonance excited on the D1{D}_{1}D1​ line of 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms by bichromatic linearly polarized laser light. We observe high-contrast transmission resonances (up to $\ensuremath{\approx}25%$), which makes this excitation scheme promising for miniature all-optical atomic clock applications. We also demonstrate cancellation of the first-order light shift by proper choice of the frequencies and relative intensities of the two laser-field components. Our theoretical predictions are in good agreement with the experimental results.
We investigate a novel approach to all-optical frequency standards, based on a combination of the coherent population trapping effect and signal discrimination at the maximum of absorption of the probe radiation. The physics underlying this approach is dark resonance splitting caused by interaction of the nuclear magnetic moment with an external magnetic field. Theoretically it has been shown that this approach under ideal conditions can lead to an important enhancement of the clock stability. Here we present an experimental evaluation of the scheme in view its future application in the domain of vapor-cell atomic clocks. The present results point out that high-performances short-term stability can be obtained only with a high spectral quality light source. In contrast, for our compact and low-consumption setup, the shot-noise limited short-term stability calculated is about 10-12τ-1/2, which is comparable to those presently measured for typical CPT-based atomic clocks.
We demonstrate that first-order light shifts can be canceled for an all-optical, three-photon-absorption resonance (N-resonance) on the D1 transition of 87Rb. This light-shift cancellation facilitates improved frequency stability for an N-resonance clock. For example, by using a tabletop apparatus designed for N-resonance spectroscopy, we measured a short-term fractional frequency stability (Allan deviation) of approximately/= 1.5 x 10(-11) tao1/2 for observation times of 1 s < or = tao < or = 50 s. Further improvements in frequency stability should be possible with an apparatus designed as a dedicated N-resonance clock.