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Chinese Optics Letters

Uncertainty evaluation of the second-order Zeeman shift of a transportable 87Rb atomic fountain clock

He-Nan Cheng, Siminda Deng, Zhen Zhang, Jingfeng Xiang, Jingwei Ji, Wei Ren, Tang Li, Qiuzhi Qu, Liang Liu, Desheng Lü

Published Jan 1, 2021• 7 citations

Abstract

In this article, taking advantage of the special magnetic shieldings and the optimal coil design of a transportable Rb atomic fountain clock, the intensity distribution in space and the fluctuations with time of the quantization magnetic field in the Ramsey region were measured using the atomic magneton-sensitive transition method. In an approximately 310 mm long Ramsey region, a peak-to-peak magnetic field intensity of a 0.74 nT deviation in space and a 0.06 nT fluctuation with time were obtained. These results correspond to a second-order Zeeman frequency shift of approximately (2095.5±5.1)×10-17. This is an essential step in advancing the total frequency uncertainty of the fountain clock to the order of 10-17.

DOI: 10.3788/col202119.120201

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Abstract In Ramsey interference of the clock transition of cold sodium atoms, we observed dephasing of the visibility, which was based on the frequency fluctuation due to the second-order Zeeman effect for inhomogeneity of the magnetic field within the atomic cloud. The frequency fluctuation was enhanced with increased strength of the quantization magnetic field, causing the dephasing of the visibility to become large. The theoretical dephasing function with frequency fluctuation was in good agreement with experimental values.

When the cold atom clock operates in microgravity around the near-earth orbit, its performance will be affected by the fluctuation of magnetic field. A strategy is proposed to suppress the fluctuation of magnetic field by additional coils, whose current is changed accordingly to compensate the magnetic fluctuation by the linear and incremental compensation. The flight model of the cold atom clock is tested in a simulated orbital magnetic environment and the magnetic field fluctuation in the Ramsey cavity is reduced from 17 nT to 2 nT, which implied the uncertainty due to the second order Zeeman shift is reduced to be less than 2 × 10 −16 . In addition, utilizing the compensation, the magnetic field in the trapping zone can be suppressed from 7.5 μT to less than 0.3 μT to meet the magnetic field requirement of polarization gradients cooling of atoms.