Joint Conference of the European Frequency and Time Forum and IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium (EFTF/IFCS)
Rb Vapor Cells with Low Environmental Sensitivity
C. Affolderbach, Florian Gruet, G. Mileti
Abstract
SummaryWe present first characterization results on novel Rb vapor cells in view of high-performance Rb atomic clocks with reduced environmental sensitivity. For this purpose, a new two-component buffer-gas mixture is employed, in order to achieve simultaneously sufficiently low temperature coefficients of the cell with respect to the cell (volume) temperature and the cell stem temperature, respectively, as well as low sensitivity of the cell to fluctuations in the external (atmospheric) pressure, thus opening the way for state-of-the-art clock stabilities around one-day timescales without need for a vacuum enclosure. We show how a Nitrogen-Methane gas mixture can be employed for this purpose and report on first experimental results with such cells.