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Optics Express

Laser-cooled 171Yb+ microwave frequency standard with a short-term frequency instability of 8.5 × 10−13/√τ

N. C. Xin, H. R. Qin, S. N. Miao, Y. T. Chen, Yajing Zheng, J. Z. Han, Jianwei Zhang, L. J. Wang

Published Mar 22, 2022• 24 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1364/oe.453423

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•Nov 15, 2018•1 citation
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.
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 describe the development and frequency instability measurements of a highly miniaturized, buffer gas cooled, trapped-ion atomic clock. The clock utilizes the 12.6 GHz hyperfine transition of the171Yb+ion. A custom-built 3 cm3vacuum package containing the ion trap is integrated with other key elements of the atomic frequency standard, including a photo multiplier tube, miniaturized laser sources at 369 nm and 935 nm, a local oscillator, and control electronics. With the clock physics package assembled on a 10 cm × 15 cm breadboard, the long-term fractional frequency instability was measured to be 6 × 10-14at 25 days of integration. Later, the clock physics package was further miniaturized, and the frequency instability was measured to be 2 × 10-11/τ1/2at integration times up to 10,000 s.
We present a transportable laser-cooled ion microwave clock based on the ground-state hyperfine splitting of 171 Yb + . The system achieves a systematic uncertainty of 7.8×10 −15 and a short-term frequency stability of 9.5×10 −13 / τ . Enhancements to the magnetic-field system suppress the decoherence process in the multi-body ion ensemble and reduce the second-order Zeeman frequency shift by a factor of two. The absolute microwave frequency is measured to be 12 642 812 118.468 6(3) Hz, consistent with the previous measurements and demonstrating twice the precision of the current state-of-the-art.
Abstract As a candidate for the next generation microwave clock, microwave atomic clocks based on trapped ions are currently studied worldwide. Since 2010, our team at Tsinghua University has been committed to developing a high-performance 113Cd+ microwave ion clock. In 2021, the laser-cooled cadmium-ion microwave clock constructed in our laboratory demonstrated remarkable performance, with a short-term instability of 4.2 × 10 − 13 / τ and a relative frequency uncertainty of 1.8 × 10−14, improving nearly three orders of magnitude compared to the result from JPL. The 0-0 ground-state hyperfine splitting frequency of 113Cd+ was determined to be 15199862855.02799(27) Hz, currently the most accurate measurement result for this transition frequency. Apart from that, we introduced the sympathetic cooling technology into the experiment of cadmium-ion microwave clock. Using 40Ca+ as the coolant ion, we obtained Ramsey patterns with a free evolution time of up to 100 seconds, ultimately improving the short-term instability of the system to 3.48 × 10 − 13 / τ . Moreover, a microwave frequency standard based on laser-cooled 171Yb+ ions has also been developed in our laboratory since 2021. The short-term frequency instability was measured to be 8.5 × 10 − 13 / τ . The ground-state hyperfine splitting frequency of 171Yb+ was determined to be 12642812118.4674(8) Hz with a fractional frequency uncertainty of 6.33 × 10−14.
We report on the development of a portable, trapped-ion, microwave frequency standard based on the 12.6 GHz hyperfine transition in laser-cooled ytterbium-171 ions. The entire system fits into a 6U 19-inch rack unit (51×49×2851\times49\times2851×49×28 cm) and comprises laser, electronics and physics package subsystems. The performance of this development system is evaluated; the fractional frequency instability was measured to be 3.6×10−12/√τ3.6\times10^{-12}/\surd\tau3.6×10−12/√τ for averaging times between 30 s and 1500 s.