NOTICE: Due to a lapse in annual appropriations, most of this website is not being updated. Learn more.
Form submissions will still be accepted but will not receive responses at this time. Sections of this site for programs using non-appropriated funds (such as NVLAP) or those that are excepted from the shutdown (such as CHIPS and NVD) will continue to be updated.
An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Reduction of light shifts in Ramsey spectroscopy with a combined error signal
Published
Author(s)
Moshe Shuker, Juniper Wren Y. Pollock, Rodolphe Boudot, V. I. Yudin, A. V. Taichenachev, John E. Kitching, Elizabeth A. Donley
Abstract
Light-induced frequency shifts can be a key limiting contribution to the mid and long-term frequency stability in atomic clocks. In this letter, we demonstrate the experimental implementation of the combined error signal (CES) interrogation protocol to a cold atom clock based on coherent population trapping (CPT) and Ramsey spectroscopy. The CES method is based on the use of a single error signal that results from the normalized combination of two error signals extracted from two Ramsey sequences of different dark periods. This combined error signal is used to stabilize the atomic clock frequency. Compared to the standard Ramsey-CPT interrogation, this method reduces the clock frequency sensitivity to the intensity ratio of the CPT fields and CPT laser frequency variations by more than an order of magnitude. This method can be applied in various kinds of Ramsey-based atomic clocks, sensors and instruments.
Shuker, M.
, Y., J.
, Boudot, R.
, Yudin, V.
, Taichenachev, A.
, Kitching, J.
and Donley, E.
(2019),
Reduction of light shifts in Ramsey spectroscopy with a combined error signal, Applied Physics Letters, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=927385
(Accessed October 12, 2025)