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

Progress Towards a Commercial 171Yb+ Microwave Atomic Frequency Standard

J. Tallant, Jay Noble, D. Guan, N. Dao, K. Richard Overstreet

Published Apr 1, 2019• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report our progress on a high-precision microwave frequency standard that is based on trapped171Yb+ions. In the presence of a buffer gas, a short-term stability of 8e13 at 1s and 1e-12/√(t) for times less than 100 s is demonstrated. Laser-cooling is demonstrated to produce a crystal whose unique decay pattern prohibits closed-loop clock operation.

DOI
10.1109/fcs.2019.8856096

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We report our progress on a high-precision microwave frequency standard that is based on trapped171Yb+ions. In the presence of a buffer gas, a short-term stability of 8e13 at 1s and 1e-12/√(t) for times less than 100 s is demonstrated. Laser-cooling is demonstrated to produce a crystal whose unique decay pattern prohibits closed-loop clock operation.
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.
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 the development of a low-power, miniature Yb-171 ion clock at Sandia National Laboratories. This work is funded by the DARPA micro Position, Navigation, and Timing program under the Integrated Micro Primary Atomic Clock Technology (IMPACT) project. The ultimate goal is to develop a frequency standard that has frequency stability comparable to a commercial Cs beam standard, but with 100 to 1000 times smaller size and power consumption. The Yb-171 ion has a microwave clock traItem MIN :YXB4-01335-A112nsition at 12.6 GHz, and the natural linewidth of the clock resonance is expected to be less than 10-3Hz, which leads to a very high-Q clock resonance. An atomic clock using trapped ions is an excellent candidate for miniaturization because ions are well isolated from the environment independently of the size of the trap. Compared to optical traps for neutral atoms, the trapping depth of RF traps for ions is usually several orders of magnitude deeper. Therefore, the requirement for the vacuum level is more forgiving. We have successfully developed miniature ion-trap vacuum packages as shown in Fig. 1. Usually, a few microTorr of He buffer gas is introduced into each of our miniature ion-trap vacuum packages, which are sealed and passively pumped by non-evaporable getters. Using a sealed 3 cc ion-trap package, we were able to demonstrate long-term clock operation, with the stability reaching the 10-14range after a few days of integration [1].
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.
An optical clock or frequency standard based on the interrogation of an atomic transition in the optical domain, operates at ~1014Hz is capable of providing orders of magnitude better accuracy than the present primary standard of frequency or time operating in the microwave range. Optical transitions of an ions, confined within a radio frequency ion trap and laser cooled to ~mK temperature, provides better long term stability since they are free from Coulomb and intra-atomic interactions. Optical frequency standards have been realized with several ions, e.g.,199Hg+,171Yb+,115In+,88Sr+,40Ca+,27Al+and among those171Y+has multiple ultra-narrow optical transitions suitable for serving as frequency standards [1-2].
The authors report preliminary results of precision microwave-optical double resonance spectroscopy on buffer gas cooled /sup 171/Yb/sup +/ ions confined in a linear Paul trap as a microwave frequency standard at 12.6 GHz. They also report laser cooling of trapped /sup 171/Yb/sup +/ ions. Temperatures below 1 K have been achieved, and evidence for a phase transition to a crystal-like state has been found. This temperature is sufficiently low to reduce the fractional second-order Doppler shift of the microwave resonance to below 10/sup -14/.>