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

A Portable Microwave Clock Using Laser-Cooled Trapped 171Yb+Ions

Sean Mulholland, S. Donnellan, G. P. Barwood, David Gentle, Guozheng Huang, Hugh A. Klein, P. Patel, G. Walsh, P. E. G. Baird, Patrick Robert Gill

Published May 1, 2018• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A portable microwave clock incorporating laser-cooling of171Yb+promises to bring significantly improved performance compared to existing thermal commercial devices. We report on progress in the development of a compact microwave frequency standard designed to fit in a 19-inch rack enclosure that comprises laser, electronics and physics package subsystems. Recent results in which a local oscillator was disciplined by laser-cooled trapped171Yb+ions are presented. Preliminary measurements have demonstrated a fractional frequency instability of 1 × 10-13at 10,000 s. Potential applications include telecommunications and financial operations time reference systems as well as navigation system integrity.

DOI
10.1109/fcs.2018.8597512

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A portable microwave clock incorporating laser-cooling of171Yb+promises to bring significantly improved performance compared to existing thermal commercial devices. We report on progress in the development of a compact microwave frequency standard designed to fit in a 19-inch rack enclosure that comprises laser, electronics and physics package subsystems. Recent results in which a local oscillator was disciplined by laser-cooled trapped171Yb+ions are presented. Preliminary measurements have demonstrated a fractional frequency instability of 1 × 10-13at 10,000 s. Potential applications include telecommunications and financial operations time reference systems as well as navigation system integrity.
We report on the development of a portable, trapped-ion, microwave frequency standard based on the 12.6 GHz hyperfine transition in laser-cooled ytterbium-171 ions. The entire system fits into a 6U 19-inch rack unit (51×49×2851\times49\times2851×49×28 cm) and comprises laser, electronics and physics package subsystems. The performance of this development system is evaluated; the fractional frequency instability was measured to be 3.6×10−12/√τ3.6\times10^{-12}/\surd\tau3.6×10−12/√τ for averaging times between 30 s and 1500 s.
We report on progress towards a microwave frequency standard based on a laser-cooled 171Yb+ ion trap system. The electronics, lasers, and magnetic shields are integrated into a single physical package. With over 1E5 ions are stably trapped, the system offers a high signal-to-noise ratio Ramsey line-shape. In comparison with previous work, the frequency instability of a 171Yb+ microwave clock was further improved to 8.5×10−13/τ8.5 \times {10^{ - 13}}/\sqrt \tau8.5×10−13/τ​ for averaging times between 10 and 1000 s.
We report on the development of a microwave frequency standard based on a laser-cooled 171 Y b + ion trap system. The electronics , lasers, and magnetic shields are integrated into a single physical package. With over 105 ions are stably trapped, the system offers a high signal-to-noise ratio Ramsey line-shape. In comparison with previous work, the frequency instability of a 171 Y b + microwave clock was further improved to 8.5 × 10 − 13 / τ for averaging times between 10 and 1000 s. Essential systematic shifts and uncertainties are also estimated.
High performance transportable microwave atomic clocks are enablers for resilient GNSS-free timescales. We present progress towards a transportable laser-cooled ytterbium ion microwave clock. This system incorporates our recently developed multi-ion trap chamber and redesigned electronics and optics systems, offering reductions in size, weight and power, with improved performance over our previous system. The benchtop prototype version of this clock uses the new physics package design and reaches a short-term instability of 1.2 × 10−12/√τ. We present the transportable clock design as well as subsystem test results, which so far indicate that a similar performance to the benchtop version is achievable in a 3U rack-mounted package.
We describe the development and frequency instability measurements of a highly miniaturized, buffer gas cooled, trapped-ion atomic clock. The clock utilizes the 12.6 GHz hyperfine transition of the171Yb+ion. A custom-built 3 cm3vacuum package containing the ion trap is integrated with other key elements of the atomic frequency standard, including a photo multiplier tube, miniaturized laser sources at 369 nm and 935 nm, a local oscillator, and control electronics. With the clock physics package assembled on a 10 cm × 15 cm breadboard, the long-term fractional frequency instability was measured to be 6 × 10-14at 25 days of integration. Later, the clock physics package was further miniaturized, and the frequency instability was measured to be 2 × 10-11/τ1/2at integration times up to 10,000 s.