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Review of Scientific Instruments

Experimental study of the application feasibility of a novel chip-scale atomic clock scheme

Huifang Lin, Yuan Tian, Jie‐Hua Chen, Sihong Gu

Published May 1, 2019• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Rb vapor cell with differential detection. Elliptically polarized light is used to interact with alkali atoms to generate coherent population trapping (CPT) resonance, and the CPT signal is obtained by detecting the Faraday rotation effect with differential detection technology. To move closer to an actual chip-scale atomic clock (CSAC), we reduce the volume of the experimental apparatus and use a divergent laser beam to interact with the atoms. We obtain the short-term frequency stability of the CSAC based on the differential detection scheme and compare it with that of a conventional CSAC. The results show that the frequency stability is more than two times better than that of current commercial CSAC devices with the same power consumption and volume.

DOI
10.1063/1.5086319

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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Mar 2, 2007•1 citation
Rb vapor cell with differential detection. Elliptically polarized light is used to interact with alkali atoms to generate coherent population trapping (CPT) resonance, and the CPT signal is obtained by detecting the Faraday rotation effect with differential detection technology. To move closer to an actual chip-scale atomic clock (CSAC), we reduce the volume of the experimental apparatus and use a divergent laser beam to interact with the atoms. We obtain the short-term frequency stability of the CSAC based on the differential detection scheme and compare it with that of a conventional CSAC. The results show that the frequency stability is more than two times better than that of current commercial CSAC devices with the same power consumption and volume.
A scheme is investigated for a coherent population trapping (CPT) atomic clock, wherein the polarization of a beam produced by a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser is converted to an elliptically polarized beam that interacts with alkali atoms, where the CPT signal is extracted by differentially detecting the magneto-optically rotated light within the transmitted beam. The scheme eliminates the spin-polarized trap state of the atoms and the unwanted background signal, and suppresses in the CPT signal the noise converted from the laser noise. This result reveals the promise of this scheme for realizing a compact CPT atomic clock possessing a significantly improved frequency stability compared to current compact CPT atomic clock devices, coupled with similar power consumption, volume, and cost therewith.
To Obtain an appropriate coherent population trapping (CPT) signal through a miniature atomic vapor cell is one of the key steps to implement a chip-scale atomic clock (CSAC). In the present experiment, the high S/N differential CPT spectral line has been achieved with a miniature atomic vapor cell through modulating the laser and extracting 87Rb atom laser interacting signal using the phase sensitive demodulation technique. With the spectral line, the dependence of CPT signal on the working parameters and the dependence of frequency stability of CSAC on the quality of the CPT signal have been studied; the obtained experimental results agree well with the theoretical prediction, which can be used as the recommended working parameters for CSAC. The methods exploited in the experiment can be implemented in the resource of a CSAC, therefore this experiment explores for CSAC the practical approaches of performance optimization.
We propose and investigate a scheme for differential detection of the magneto-optic rotation (MOR) effect, where a linearly polarized bichromatic laser field is coherent population-trapping (CPT)-resonant with alkali atoms, and discuss the application of this effect to CPT-based atomic clocks. The results of our study indicate that laser noise in a vertical cavity surface-emitting laser-based CPT atomic clock can be effectively suppressed by the proposed scheme. The proposed scheme promises to realize a packaged MOR-CPT atomic clock that has significantly better frequency stability coupled with similar power consumption, volume, and cost when compared with currently available packaged CPT atomic clocks.
Research on chip-scale atomic clocks (CSACs) based on coherent population trapping (CPT) is reviewed. The background and the inspiration for the research are described, including the important schemes proposed to improve the CPT signal quality, the selection of atoms and buffer gases, and the development of micro-cell fabrication. With regard to the reliability, stability, and service life of the CSACs, the research regarding the sensitivity of the CPT resonance to temperature and laser power changes is also reviewed, as well as the CPT resonance's collision and light of frequency shifts. The first generation CSACs have already been developed but its characters are still far from our expectations. Our conclusion is that miniaturization and power reduction are the most important aspects calling for further research.
Herein, a microfabricated millimeter-level vapor alkali cell with a high hermeticity is fabricated through a wet etching and single-chip anodic bonding process. The vapor cell, containing Rb and N2, was investigated in a coherent population trapping (CPT) setup for the application of a chip-scale atomic clock (CSAC). The contrast of CPT resonance is up to 1.1% within the only 1 mm length of light interacting with atom. The effects of some critical external parameters on the CPT resonance, such as laser intensity, cell temperature, and buffer gas pressure, are thoroughly studied and optimized. The improved microfabricated vapor cell also exhibited great potential for other chip-scale atomic devices.
We present preliminary results showing that some noise sources in vapor cell atomic clocks based on coherent population trapping (CPT) can be suppressed with differential detection. The scheme we propose differs from more conventional differential detection in that both optical fields pass through the alkali vapor cell but have different polarizations, one circular and one linear. Because CPT resonances are only excited by the circularly polarized beam, the linearly polarized beam can be used to reduce several important sources of noise. With this technique, we demonstrate reduction of the short-term frequency instability of a CPT atomic frequency reference by a factor of about 1.5.