A chip-scale atomic clock based on 87Rb with improved frequency stability

Published

February 21, 2005

Author(s)

Svenja A. Knappe, P Schwindt, V Shah, Leo W. Hollberg, John E. Kitching, Li-Anne Liew, John Moreland

Abstract

We demonstrate a microfabricated atomic clock physics package based on coherent population trapping (CPT) of ⁸⁷Rb atoms. The package occupies a volume of 12 mm³ and requires 195 mW of power to operate. Compared to a previous microfabricated clock exciting the D₂ transition in Cs, this ⁸⁷Rb clock shows significantly improved short- and long-term stability. The instability at short times is 4 × 10^-11 / τ^1/2 and the improvement over the Cs device is mainly due to an increase in resonance amplitude. At longer times (τ > 50 sec), the improvement results from the reduction of a slow drift to –5 × 10^-9 / day. The drift is most likely caused by a chemical reaction of nitrogen and barium inside the cell. When probing the atoms on the D₁ line, spin-exchange collisions between Rb atoms and optical pumping have increased importance.

Citation

Optics Express

Volume

13

Issue

4

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

high-resolution, micro-optics, spectroscopy

Citation

Knappe, S. , Schwindt, P. , Shah, V. , Hollberg, L. , Kitching, J. , Liew, L. and Moreland, J. (2005), A chip-scale atomic clock based on ⁸⁷Rb with improved frequency stability, Optics Express, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=30062 (Accessed October 11, 2025)