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

Compact frequency standard with cold atoms

Stella Müller, Renato Ferracini Alves, Vanderlei Salvador Bagnato, Daniel Varela Magalhães

Published May 1, 2011• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Our laboratory has been developing an atomic reference system in which an ensemble of cold atoms of cesium is produced already in the center of a microwave cavity. The timeline of the project is divided in three parts: proof of principle with an antenna, design of a microwave cavity with viewports to produce the magneto-optical trap (MOT) and a movable system with all the parts embedded in a single package. In this work we present the first two parts of the global project with some relevant aspects for the construction of this compact frequency standard.

DOI
10.1109/fcs.2011.5977768

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Our laboratory has been developing an atomic reference system in which an ensemble of cold atoms of cesium is produced already in the center of a microwave cavity. The timeline of the project is divided in three parts: proof of principle with an antenna, design of a microwave cavity with viewports to produce the magneto-optical trap (MOT) and a movable system with all the parts embedded in a single package. In this work we present the first two parts of the global project with some relevant aspects for the construction of this compact frequency standard.
A compact frequency standard based on an expanding cold Cs133 cloud is under development in our laboratory. In a first experiment, Cs cold atoms were prepared by a magneto-optical trap in a vapor cell, and a microwave antenna was used to transmit the radiation for the clock transition. The signal obtained from fluorescence of the expanding cold atoms cloud is used to lock a microwave chain. In this way the overall system stability is evaluated. A theoretical model based on a two-level system interacting with the two microwave pulses enables interpretation for the observed features, especially the poor Ramsey fringes contrast.
Abstract A compact platform for cold atoms opens a range of exciting possibilities for portable, robust and accessible quantum sensors. In this work, we report on the development of a cold-atom microwave clock in a small package. Our work utilises the grating magneto-optical trap and high-contrast coherent population trapping in the lin ⊥ $\perp $ lin polarisation scheme. We optically probe the atomic ground-state splitting of cold 87Rb atoms using a Ramsey-like sequence whilst the atoms are in free-fall. We have measured a short-term fractional frequency stability of 5 × 10 − 11 / τ 5×10−11/τ5{\times}{10}^{-11}/\sqrt{\tau }5×10−11/τ​ with a projected quantum projection noise limit at the 10 − 13 / τ 10−13/τ{10}^{-13}/\sqrt{\tau }10−13/τ​ level.
We demonstrate a Ramsey-type microwave clock interrogating the 6.835 GHz ground-state transition in cold [Formula: see text]Rb atoms loaded from a grating magneto-optical trap (GMOT) enclosed in an additively manufactured loop-gap resonator microwave cavity. A short-term stability of [Formula: see text] is demonstrated, in reasonable agreement with predictions from the signal-to-noise ratio of the measured Ramsey fringes. The cavity-grating package has a volume of [Formula: see text]67 cm[Formula: see text], ensuring an inherently compact system while the use of a GMOT drastically simplifies the optical requirements for laser cooled atoms. This work is another step towards the realisation of highly compact portable cold-atom frequency standards.