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Operating a 171Yb+ Microwave Ion Clock in.

Peter D. D. Schwindt

Published May 29, 2019• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Trapped Ion Clock for Miniaturization Trapped ion clocks are already compact while delivering excellent performance.Low mass, size, power Trapped ion lifetime: up to 10,000 hrs Coherence time: > 100s Other approaches for ACES: Miniature fountain clock Miniature optical clock Fractional frequency instability

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Outline • Introduction• Why trapped ions for miniaturization?• Miniaturized vacuum package: 1 cm 3 • Pulsed-mode ion clock performance • F-state trapping • Current focus: microwave optical double resonance continuous operation • Alternative ion clock: Alkali Mediated Atomic Clock • Conclusion Miniaturization with Long-Term and Environmental Stability • Achieve Cs Beam Clock performance in a mass and power constrained package • DARPA programs: • IMPACT: improved long-term stability • ACES: improved environmental stability Applications--Excellent timing for: • Rapid GPS acquisition, and GPS denied navigation and timing • Nano/pico (cube) satellites • Pulsed radio and spread spectrum communications Microsemi 5071A Miniature primary frequency standard Approved for Public Release, Distribution Unlimited Critical Elements of the 171 Yb + Clock Trap Electrodes Ions Yb Source Vacuum Package Control and Power Electronics Local Oscillator Magnetic Shield and Coil Repump (935 nm) Optical Pumping/ State Detection Laser (369 nm) Beam Combiner Fluorescence Collection Lens Fluorescence Detector Photo Multiplier Tube (PMT) Ionization UV Light
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].
Trapped mercury ion is a promising candidate for portable and operational atomic clocks. It operates at the 40.5GHz ground state hyperfine transition of 199Hg ions. Mercury ions are confined in a linear RF trap, buffer-gas cooled, with a long ion storage lifetime in an ultra-high vacuum enclosure without an active pump. The clock transition is optically-pumped and detected with a Hg discharge lamp without need of a laser light source. This approach has proven to provide simplicity in design and implementation and robustness in operation. In this paper, we report our recently effort on developing a micro and low-power mercury trapped ion clock in the DARPA ACES program. In a 5 mm x 10 mm linear trap (0.25 cc), we have achieved the clock fractional frequency stability of .7 × 10-12τ-1/2and reached down to 7 × 10-14after 1000 seconds of averaging. We will discuss the clock performance under different conditions and implications toward a micro mercury trapped ion clock with low power and high stability.
We are developing a highly miniaturized trapped ion clock to probe the 12.6 GHz hyperfine transition in the 171Yb+ ion. The clock development is being funded by the Integrated Micro Primary Atomic Clock Technology (IMPACT) program from DARPA where the stated goals are to develop a clock that consumes 50 mW of power, has a size of 5 cm3, and has a long-term frequency stability of 10-14 at one month. One of the significant challenges will be to develop miniature single-frequency lasers at 369 nm and 935 nm and the optical systems to deliver light to the ions and to collect ion fluorescence on a detector.
Abstract Optical clocks have well surpassed the frequency stability performance of microwave clocks. They have been mainly limited to tabletop setups and large rack-mount systems. Miniaturizing optical clocks will make the new technology and capability more ubiquitously applied to applications from navigation to fundamental science. Here we aim to develop a miniature space optical clock (mSOC) with the size of a compact microwave clock and capable of achieving a short-term stability of 10−14 τ −1/2 and noise floor of 10−16. In this paper, we will describe the mSOC concept, discuss the experimental setup, and present recent results. We have demonstrated trapping single ions and characterized the ion lifetime in a 16-cc trap tube. The trap tube is completely sealed off without any active pump. We also constructed a clock laser referenced to a small ultra-low expansion reference cavity at a low 10−14 level and observed the clock transition.
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.