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Chinese Physics B

Development of the integrated integrating sphere cold atom clock*

Mingyuan Yu, Yanling Meng, Meifeng Ye, Xin Wang, Xinchuan Ouyang, Jinyin Wan, Ling Xiao, Hua-Dong Cheng, Liang Liu

Published Jul 1, 2019• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We develop an integrated integrating sphere cold atom clock (ISCAC), which mainly consists of physical package, laser system, microwave source, and electronics. This compact system is more stable and reliable than the previous version. The experimental results show that the short term frequency stability of 5.4 × 10 − 13 τ − 1 / 2 and 2.9 × 10−15 at 1-day integrating time are achieved.

DOI
10.1088/1674-1056/28/7/070602

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We develop an integrated integrating sphere cold atom clock (ISCAC), which mainly consists of physical package, laser system, microwave source, and electronics. This compact system is more stable and reliable than the previous version. The experimental results show that the short term frequency stability of 5.4 × 10 − 13 τ − 1 / 2 and 2.9 × 10−15 at 1-day integrating time are achieved.
We present the long-term stability of the integrating sphere cold atom clock (ISCAC) and analyze its systematic limitations. The relative frequency instability of 2.6×10−15 is reached for an averaging time of 2×105  s. The second-order Zeeman effect and the cavity pulling effect in ISCAC, which would induce the frequency drift from the clock transition, are analyzed. The analytical and experimental results indicate that the cavity pulling effect is the main contribution to the long-term frequency instability of the ISCAC. Further technical improvements to the microwave cavity are also discussed.
The medium long-term frequency stability of the integrating sphere cold atom clock was improved. During the clock operation, Rb87 atoms were cooled and manipulated using cooling light diffusely reflected by the inner surface of a microwave cavity in the clock. This light heated the cavity and caused a frequency drift from the resonant frequency of the cavity. Power fluctuations of the cooling light led to atomic density variations in the cavity’s central area, which increased the clock frequency instability through the cavity pulling effect. We overcame these limitations with appropriate solutions. A frequency stability of 3.5×10−15 was achieved when the integrating time τ increased to 2×104 s.
Abstract This article proposes a new physics package to enhance the frequency stability of the space cold atom clock with the advantages of a microgravity environment. Clock working processes, including atom cooling, atomic state preparation, microwave interrogation, and transition probability detection, are integrated into the cylindrical microwave cavity to achieve a high-performance and compact physics package for the space cold atom clock. We present the detailed design and ground-test results of the cold atom clock physics package in this article, which demonstrates a frequency stability of 1.2 × 10−12 τ −1/2 with a Ramsey linewidth of 12.5 Hz, and a better performance is predicted with a 1 Hz or a narrower Ramsey linewidth in microgravity environment. The miniaturized cold atom clock based on intracavity cooling has great potential for achieving space high-precision time-frequency reference in the future.
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 present a compact cold-atom clock configuration where isotropic laser cooling, microwave interrogation, and clock signal detection are successively performed inside a spherical microwave cavity. For ground operation, a typical Ramsey fringe width of 20 Hz has been demonstrated, limited by the atom cloud's free fall in the cavity. The isotropic cooling light's disordered properties provide a large and stable number of cold atoms, leading to a high signal-to-noise ratio limited by atomic shot noise. A relative frequency stability of $2.2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}13}{\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2}$ has been achieved, averaged down to $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}15}$ after $5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{3}$ s of integration. Development of such a high-performance compact clock is of major relevance for on-board applications, such as satellite-positioning systems. As a cesium clock, it opens the door to a new generation of compact primary standards and timekeeping devices.