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Quantum Electronics

Generalised Ramsey methods for suppressing light shifts in atomic clocks based on the coherent population trapping effect

Д. В. Коваленко, M. Yu. Basalaev, Valeriy I. Yudin, T. Zanon-Willette, А. В. Тайченачев

Published May 19, 2021• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We study the possibility of suppressing light shifts in Ramsey spectroscopy of coherent population trapping (CPT) using generalised autobalanced Ramsey spectroscopy (GABRS) and combined error signal in Ramsey spectroscopy (CESRS). We consider CPT resonances excited by a coherent bichromatic field in an open Λ-system with a ‘trap’ state. Using a rigorous mathematical proof and numerical calculations, these methods are shown to lead to complete suppression of the light shift and its fluctuations. Implementation of GABRS and CESRS in CPT clocks can markedly improve accuracy and long-term stability of these devices. These methods can also be applied in atomic CPT magnetometers and interferometers.

DOI
10.1070/qel17582

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Письма в Журнал экспериментальной и теоретической физики•Apr 15, 2023•0 citations
Abstract We study the possibility of suppressing light shifts in Ramsey spectroscopy of coherent population trapping (CPT) using generalised autobalanced Ramsey spectroscopy (GABRS) and combined error signal in Ramsey spectroscopy (CESRS). We consider CPT resonances excited by a coherent bichromatic field in an open Λ-system with a ‘trap’ state. Using a rigorous mathematical proof and numerical calculations, these methods are shown to lead to complete suppression of the light shift and its fluctuations. Implementation of GABRS and CESRS in CPT clocks can markedly improve accuracy and long-term stability of these devices. These methods can also be applied in atomic CPT magnetometers and interferometers.
We present a rigorous justification for the applicability of the recently developed methods of generalized autobalanced Ramsey spectroscopy (GABRS) [V. I. Yudin et al., Phys. Rev. Appl. 9, 054034 (2018)] and combined error signal in Ramsey spectroscopy (CESRS) [ , New J. Phys. 20, 123016 (2018)] for resonances of coherent population trapping (CPT). A protocol of modified combined error signal for CPT resonances is also proposed, in which two successive interrogations of atoms under different times of free evolution are integrated in one cycle. The implementation of the GABRS and CESRS methods in a compact atomic clock based on the CPT effect allows us to significantly suppress the light shift and its fluctuation, which will lead to an improvement in the long-term stability and accuracy of these devices. Moreover, these spectroscopic schemes are insensitive to various distortions of the pulse shape, relaxation processes, errors in the generation of phase jumps, etc., which provides their high reliability and immunity to perturbations.
Light-induced frequency shifts can be a key limiting contribution to the mid- and long-term frequency instabilities in atomic clocks. In this letter, we demonstrate the experimental implementation of the combined error signal interrogation protocol to a cold-atom clock based on coherent population trapping (CPT) and Ramsey spectroscopy. The method uses a single error signal that results from the normalized combination of two error signals extracted from two Ramsey sequences of different dark periods. The single combined error signal is used to stabilize the atomic clock frequency. Compared to the standard Ramsey-CPT interrogation, this method reduces the clock frequency sensitivity to light-shift variations by more than one order of magnitude. This method can be applied in various kinds of Ramsey-based atomic clocks, sensors, and instruments.
We present a brief review of the rapidly growing field of autobalanced Ramsey spectroscopy followed by a detailed discussion and review of two novel techniques that were developed and tested in our laboratory: displaced frequency-jump Ramsey spectroscopy and combined error signal spectroscopy. These two techniques are related to, yet different from autobalanced Ramsey spectroscopy. The use of these techniques in a cold-atom clock based on coherent population trapping has reduced instabilities from variations in light-shift parameters by at least one order of magnitude. In each of these techniques the Ramsey sequence adapts to cancel light shifts and drifts.
We investigate the influence of optical thickness on the coherent population trapping (CPT) resonance interrogated by the autobalanced Ramsey method as well as by the method of combined error signals (CESs). We analyze sensitivity of the CPT resonance to the light shift of the etalon transition for the microwave quantum frequency standards based on cold or hot atomic ensembles. When the CPT resonance is excited, two-frequency laser radiation can be significantly absorbed at the atomic transitions of the optical range. The effects of absorption and phase incursion lead to additional shift of the reference resonance. This is an additional factor that degrades the accuracy of the frequency standards because this additional shift can vary with intensity and temperature fluctuations. It was shown that the CES method is more robust in an optically dense medium than is the autobalanced Ramsey method, but it also undergoes the light shift. We found that by choosing the normalization factor of the CES method it is possible to suppress the light shift for a certain density of the medium or suppress its sensitivity to temperature fluctuations.
Abstract Light shifts induced during atom–light interactions significantly affect the medium- and long-term frequency stability of atomic clocks. Here, we employ composite laser pulse sequences to mitigate interrogation-induced light shifts in a cold-atom coherent-population-trapping clock. We obtain the anti-symmetry error signal via modulating the local oscillator phase in the free-evolution time of Ramsey interferometry. Utilizing this signal, we employ two feedback loops to simultaneously eliminate light shifts and stabilize the clock frequency using the auto-balanced Ramsey (ABR) spectroscopy scheme. Our experimental results demonstrate that this approach can reduce the clock frequency’s sensitivity to variations in light shifts by implementing four Ramsey sub-sequences. Furthermore, we show that the ABR spectroscopy scheme enhances the long-term frequency stability of the atomic clock when the averaging time τ > 5000 s.
The active suppression of light shift of the reference coherent population trapping (CPT) resonance in 87Rb vapor to improve the long-term stability of compact atomic clocks has been demonstrated experimentally. The approach is based on the phase jump technique used to synthesize an error signal, which is proportional to the light shift of the CPT resonance, from an optical transmission signal. The use of this error signal in an additional feedback loop allows one to stabilize the amplitude of a microwave signal for the phase modulation of laser radiation near a value at which the light shift of the CPT resonance is absent. This technique has made it possible to reduce the long-term instability of CPT atomic clocks in our experiments by a factor of 15 at an integration time of 10 000–20 000 s.