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European Frequency and Time Forum

Wall-coated cells for Rb atomic clocks: Study of the ripening process by double-resonance spectroscopy

Matthieu Pellaton, C. Affolderbach, G. Mileti, Rahel Straessle, D. Briand, Nico F. de Rooij

Published Apr 1, 2012• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We present a study of our in-house made tetracontane wall-coated87Rb vapour cells for rubidium atomic clock applications. Evolution of the double-resonance (DR) signal during the so-called ripening process of these cells is measured and interpreted. Intrinsic properties of the coated cells post ripening are presented. Intrinsic linewidths below 70 Hz, and moderate temperature coefficients (1.5 × 10-10/K) are promising cell properties in view of highly compact and miniature atomic clocks.

DOI
10.1109/eftf.2012.6502340

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Physica Scripta•Apr 27, 2012•5 citations
We present a study of our in-house made tetracontane wall-coated87Rb vapour cells for rubidium atomic clock applications. Evolution of the double-resonance (DR) signal during the so-called ripening process of these cells is measured and interpreted. Intrinsic properties of the coated cells post ripening are presented. Intrinsic linewidths below 70 Hz, and moderate temperature coefficients (1.5 × 10-10/K) are promising cell properties in view of highly compact and miniature atomic clocks.
This thesis presents experimental studies on continuous-wave (CW) laser-microwave double-resonance (DR) spectroscopy and metrology in rubidium (87Rb) vapor cells in view of new high-performance, compact Rb-cell atomic clocks. The Rb vapor cell is confined inside a magnetron-type cavity microwave resonator (MWR). The CW DR spectroscopy involves two resonant electromagnetic fields that are operated simultaneously to interrogate the atoms - the optical field to polarize the atoms by optical pumping, and the microwave field to drive the ground-state hyperfine clock transition that serves as an atomic frequency reference. Details on characterization of compact laser heads and microwave synthesizers used in this work are presented. The vapor cell standards are useful in our everyday lives for applications ranging from telecommunications, navigation, metrology etc. In view of improving the performances of the Rb cell standards, two different clock approaches were studied in detail: The first one is on use of vapor cells (1.4 cm3) whose inner walls are coated with anti-relaxation material. A first ever wall-coated cell clock was demonstrated with good short-term frequency stability. The medium- to long-term stability was found to be limited by the temperature coefficient (TC) of the coating material itself. This work gave the insight to important features to be considered in future anti-relaxation coating materials for atomic standards. The second novel approach involves using a bigger cell (12 cm3) within a newly developed, improved MWR towards a high-performance atomic standard. Adopting a larger cell gives a higher atomic Q-factor signal that improves the short-term clock stability. In this approach, the cell was filled with 87Rb and buffer gases. With this clock, we demonstrate the state-of-the-art short-term stability of <1.4×10−13 τ−1/2. Metrological quantitative measurements on parameters influencing the medium- to long-term stability were studied in view of next generation satellite navigation systems that demand a stability level of <1×10−14 at 10 4 s (equivalent to <1 ns/day). The potential of short-term stability and understanding of the limiting factors on medium- to long-term time scales demonstrated in this study pave the way for future work towards the commercialization of high-performance Rb atomic clocks for a variety of applications.
In this paper, we present our studies on double resonance using atomic 87Rb in a wall-coated cell, in view of applications in a laser-pumped Rb atomic frequency standard. We study the systematic clock frequency shifts in a wall-coated cell, such as light shift, microwave power shift [11, 12] and shift due to cell temperature [13] (for the cell body, and for the Rb reservoir, also called the cell stem). We also report on our clock stability measurement using the wallcoated cell in DR scheme, and discuss the influence of the shift parameters first on the frequency stability of the clock.
We report our studies on using microwave-optical double-resonance (DR) spectroscopy for a high-performance Rb vapour-cell atomic clock in view of future industrial applications.The clock physics package is very compact with a total volume of only 0.8 dm 3 .It contains a recently in-house developed magnetron-type cavity and a Rb vapour cell.A homedmade frequency-stabilized laser system with an integrated acousto-optical-modulator (AOM)for switching and controlling the light output power-is used as an optical source in a laser head (LH).The LH has the overall volume of 2.5 dm 3 including the laser diode, optical elements, AOM and electronics.In our Rb atomic clock two schemes of continuous-wave DR and Ramsey-DR schemes are used, where the latter one strongly reduces the light-shift effect by separation of the interaction of light and microwave.Applications of the DR clock approach to more radically miniaturized atomic clocks are discussed.
We report on the realization and spectroscopic evaluation of a micro-fabricated Rb vapor cell equipped with an anti-relaxation OTS wall coating. By combining different spectroscopic results, we can exclude a hypothetical buffer-gas contamination of the cell as cause of the narrow double-resonance (DR) signals observed. We thus conclude that the narrow DR signal linewidth is due to the anti-relaxation wall-coating present in the cell. This realization presents interests in view of applications in miniaturized atomic devices such as atomic clocks, magnetometers, and others.
This thesis presents experimental studies on continuous-wave (CW) laser-microwave double-resonance (DR) spectroscopy and metrology in rubidium (87Rb) vapor cells in view of new high-performance, compact Rb-cell atomic clocks. The Rb vapor cell is confined inside a magnetron-type cavity microwave resonator (MWR). The CW DR spectroscopy involves two resonant electromagnetic fields that are operated simultaneously to interrogate the atoms - the optical field to polarize the atoms by optical pumping, and the microwave field to drive the ground-state hyperfine clock transition that serves as an atomic frequency reference. Details on characterization of compact laser heads and microwave synthesizers used in this work are presented. The vapor cell standards are useful in our everyday lives for applications ranging from telecommunications, navigation, metrology etc. In view of improving the performances of the Rb cell standards, two different clock approaches were studied in detail: The first one is on use of vapor cells (1.4 cm3) whose inner walls are coated with anti-relaxation material. A first ever wall-coated cell clock was demonstrated with good short-term frequency stability. The medium- to long-term stability was found to be limited by the temperature coefficient (TC) of the coating material itself. This work gave the insight to important features to be considered in future anti-relaxation coating materials for atomic standards. The second novel approach involves using a bigger cell (12 cm3) within a newly developed, improved MWR towards a high-performance atomic standard. Adopting a larger cell gives a higher atomic Q-factor signal that improves the short-term clock stability. In this approach, the cell was filled with 87Rb and buffer gases. With this clock, we demonstrate the state-of-the-art short-term stability of <1.4×10−13 τ−1/2. Metrological quantitative measurements on parameters influencing the medium- to long-term stability were studied in view of next generation satellite navigation systems that demand a stability level of <1×10−14 at 10 4 s (equivalent to <1 ns/day). The potential of short-term stability and understanding of the limiting factors on medium- to long-term time scales demonstrated in this study pave the way for future work towards the commercialization of high-performance Rb atomic clocks for a variety of applications.
We present a comparative study of the light-shifts (ac Stark shift) in a Rb vapour cell using two possible schemes for Rb atomic clocks: double resonance (DR) and coherent population trapping (CPT). For both schemes, the same wall-coated cell in a compact atomic resonator was used. The light-shift resulting from a monochromatic (DR) or a non-monochromatic (CPT) optical excitation was measured as a function of the laser intensity and the laser frequency and compared with existing theoretical results.