Development of a Conventional Laser-Pumped RB Atomic Clock: Status Report; Conference paper

摘要

As is well known, the phase fluctuations of a laser can decrease the signal-to-noise ratio of a vapor-cell clock due to laser PM-to-AM conversion. In previous work, we demonstrated an easy means of eliminating this problem: use high-pressure resonance cells so that collisional dephasing keeps the atoms from following the laser's fluctuating phase. Though our phase-1 clock employing a 100 torr N2 cell had excellent short-term performance, the long- term performance left much to be desired, quite likely because the increased pressure in the resonance cell gave the clock a fairly large temperature sensitivity. Here, we discuss our progress towards a phase-2 laser-pumped Rb clock, where the temperature sensitivity will be much reduced.