Progress towards a laser-cooled cesium atomic fountain frequency standard at NIST, Gaithersburg

Author

Klipstein, William M. ; Ekstrom, Christopher R. ; Rolston, Steven L. ; Phillips, William D.

Author_Institution

Nat. Inst. of Stand. & Technol., Gaithersburg, MD, USA

fYear

1998

fDate

27-29 May 1998

Firstpage

9

Lastpage

12

Abstract

We report here on progress towards the realization of an atomic frequency standard using a fountain of laser cooled cesium atoms. We have recently observed Ramsey fringes on the 9.2 GHz clock transition and have begun preliminary work aimed at characterizing our fountain. This paper describes briefly the apparatus, discusses our current work and near-term directions. We conclude with a brief discussion of a laser system being built to realize two-dimensional Raman cooling or Raman velocity selection for cooling below the single photon recoil limit. This system will be used either in our fountain or in a cold-atom clock to be flown on the International Space Station

Keywords

atomic clocks; caesium; laser cooling; 2D Raman cooling; 9.2 GHz; Cs; Cs atomic fountain frequency standard; Gaithersburg; International Space Station; NIST; Raman velocity selection; Ramsey fringes; clock transition; cold-atom clock; laser cooled Cs atoms; single photon recoil limit; Atom lasers; Atomic beams; Atomic measurements; Clocks; Cooling; Laser beams; Laser transitions; Laser tuning; Magnetic shielding; NIST;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Frequency Control Symposium, 1998. Proceedings of the 1998 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Pasadena, CA

ISSN

1075-6787

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4373-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/FREQ.1998.717870

Filename

717870