Frequency Biases in Pulsed Atomic Fountain Frequency Standards Due to Spurious Components in the Microwave Spectrum

Published

June 6, 2006

Author(s)

Thomas P. Heavner, Jon H. Shirley, Filippo Levi, Dai Yu, Steven R. Jefferts

Abstract

mechanism by which spurs in the microwave spectrum may cause biases in pulsed atomic fountain frequency standards was identified in [1]. Here we present models for the cases of phase modulating (PM) and amplitude modulating (AM) spurs in the spectrum. In the case of a PM spur, the bias is first-order in the spur amplitude. Under common experimental conditions, this effect may be much larger than the second-order bias presented in [2]. We present measurements made using NIST-F1 whereby PM spurs of known amplitude were added onto the microwave signal used to interrogate the Cs clock transition. The measured biases are compared to the predictions of the model. Finally, we discuss the difficulties of evaluating the frequency bias in fountain frequency standards using traditional techniques such as operating at elevated microwave powers.

Proceedings Title

Proc. 2006 Freq. Cont. Symp.

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

ces, syn

Citation

Heavner, T. , Shirley, J. , Levi, F. , Yu, D. and Jefferts, S. (2006), Frequency Biases in Pulsed Atomic Fountain Frequency Standards Due to Spurious Components in the Microwave Spectrum, Proc. 2006 Freq. Cont. Symp., [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=50394 (Accessed October 10, 2025)