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Features of a CPT-based atomic clock with pumping by different-order sidebands of a VCSEL's frequency

Daba A. Radnatarov, Sergey M Kobtsev, Valeriy Andryushkov, Sergey Khripunov

Published Nov 19, 2019• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Presented for the first time is our research into reduction of energy consumption of miniaturised Rb atomic clocks based on coherent population trapping (CPT) effect at lowered microwave modulation frequency. We studied properties of a CPT-based atomic frequency standard pumped with multi-frequency radiation from sidebands of a single-frequency semiconductor laser whose injection current was modulated at subharmonics (1/2–1/6) of the frequency of Rb hyperfine ground state splitting. Pumping by third-order sidebands is the optimum when the atomic clock stability drops only slightly (by 11%), whereas energy consumption of the microwave components is reduced by a factor of 1.5.

DOI
10.1117/12.2537607

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Presented for the first time is our research into reduction of energy consumption of miniaturised Rb atomic clocks based on coherent population trapping (CPT) effect at lowered microwave modulation frequency. We studied properties of a CPT-based atomic frequency standard pumped with multi-frequency radiation from sidebands of a single-frequency semiconductor laser whose injection current was modulated at subharmonics (1/2–1/6) of the frequency of Rb hyperfine ground state splitting. Pumping by third-order sidebands is the optimum when the atomic clock stability drops only slightly (by 11%), whereas energy consumption of the microwave components is reduced by a factor of 1.5.
This letter presents for the first time a systematic study of an atomic frequency standard based on coherent population trapping (CPT) effect in87Rb vapour optically pumped with a multifrequency laser radiation formed with sidebands of a single-frequency laser whose injection current is modulated at a subharmonic frequency (1/2-1/6) relative to the frequency of hyperfine ground state splitting. Measured are the CPT resonance parameters and the atomic clock short-term stability at different subharmonic frequencies of microwave modulation. The possibility of CPT resonance light shift suppression is experimentally demonstrated at modulation frequencies between 1/3 and 1/5 of the resonant frequency for continuous wave optical pumping of the87Rb vapour D1 line. Analyzed are the capabilities and potential of reduced energy consumption of atomic clocks when CPT resonance in rubidium vapour is excited at subharmonic modulation frequencies.
Previously, we have proposed a method to control the emission spectrum of the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) with the synchronized modulation of the injection current at single and doubled frequencies. In this work, the above method is used to improve the metrological characteristics of the coherent population trapping (CPT) resonance in 87 Rb. The dual-frequency (DF) modulation reduces the carrier power and suppresses the light shift of the resonance frequency, if it is unattainable with the single-frequency modulation. In addition, a higher resonance contrast is achieved by equalizing the powers of the resonant components of the spectrum.
An atomic clock system based on coherent population trapping (CPT) resonance in 85 Rb is reported, while most past works about the CPT clock are in 87 Rb. A new modulation method (full-hyperfine-frequency-splitting modulation) is presented to reduce the effect of light shift to improve the frequency stability of the CPT clock in 85 Rb. The experimental results show that the short-term frequency stability of the CPT clock in 85 Rb is in the order of 10 −10 /s and the long-term frequency stability can achieve 1.5 × 10 −11 /80000 s, which performs as well as 87 Rb in CPT resonance. This very good frequency stability performance associated with the low-cost and low-power properties of 85 Rb indicates that an atomic clock based on CPT in 85 Rb should be a promising candidate for making the chip scale atomic clock.
We present a microwave frequency standard based on coherent population trapping (CPT) in the 87Rb D1 line. The CPT spectrum is obtained using two Raman lasers with a 6.8 GHz frequency offset by injection locking of a master laser to a slave laser. We have constructed an atomic clock employing a 5 cm long Rb vapor cell confined with 6.67 kPa neon buffer gas at 70 °C. Using this system, we improve the CPT contrast through the elimination of undesired off-resonant fields created by the direct modulation method. We measured the frequency shift of the CPT signal as a function of the temperature of the Rb cell and estimated it to be approximately 1.3 ×10−9/K. The frequency of a 10 MHz crystal oscillator has been stabilized to the CPT spectrum between the two ground states in 87Rb. The relative frequency stability is approximately 2.3×10−12 for an average time of 68 s.
Space-borne atomic frequency standards demand a high level of performance and stability throughout the mission life in the harsh environment of space. Recently, atomic clocks employing Coherent Population Trapping (CPT), a quantum interference phenomenon in alkali atoms, have shown much promise for space application. This paper presents the development and realization of compact and reliable CPT atomic clock for ISRO's navigational satellites. In our approach, quantum interference in Rb-87 atoms are pursued for obtaining the clock resonance, owing to their larger ground state hyperfine transition energy (higher Q-factor). Quantum interference is realized by generating two resonant optical laser fields from a VCSEL diode by modulating its drive current at RF frequency which corresponds to the ground state hyperfine separation in Rb-87 atoms. The emission frequency of the laser diode is stabilized by locking it with respect to the D1 hyperfine transition with the help of a servo control loop, thereby the instabilities associated with laser frequency fluctuations are minimized. The resulting CPT resonance (<;kHz) as shown in Figure 1 is used as reference to stabilize the crystal oscillator frequency (10 MHz) that serves both as clock output and seed for generating the RF field.
In this paper, the investigation of a 85 Rb coherent-population-trapping (CPT) atomic clock for low-power operation is described. The modulation profiles and CPT resonances for both 85 Rb and 87 Rb, the long-term frequency stabilities of the CPT resonance for both, and the feasibility of switching between low-power and high-stability operation modes are presented. The choice of 85 Rb rather than conventional 87 Rb is dictated by the lower ground-state hyperfine-splitting frequency, which leads to less than one-half the required RF power and more effective RF-related circuit designs. CPT resonances for both 85 Rb and 87 Rb can be observed separately in the same natural mixture Rb gas cell, and the linewidth is less than 120 Hz in both cases. The long-term frequency stabilities are <4.0 ×10 -12 /day for 85 Rb and <3.5 ×10 -12 /day for 87 Rb. These results indicate that a 85 Rb CPT atomic clock has a long-term stability of ∼4.0 ×10 -12 /day and consumes about one-half the RF power of a 87 Rb equivqlent. In addition, it is possible to switch between low-power and high-stability operation modes by changing the RF frequency and power.