Laser-cooled neutral atom frequency standards

Author

Rolston, Steven L. ; Phillips, William D.

Author_Institution

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

Volume

79

Issue

7

fYear

1991

fDate

7/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

943

Lastpage

951

Abstract

The authors review the prospects for a frequency standard based on what is called the atomic fountain. Atomic fountain frequency standards have better signal-to-noise ratios than ion standards, but suffer from larger systematic effects. An analysis of a Cs microwave fountain predicts potential stability and accuracy improvements of a factor of 100 over other laboratory standards, with an ultimate accuracy near 10 ^-16. An optical frequency standard based on a two-photon transition in xenon is analyzed and shown to have potential stability 5 orders of magnitude better than conventional Cs standards, and a possible accuracy of 10^-18. Neutral atom frequency standards will have much better signal-to-noise ratios than ion standards, but suffer from larger systematic effects, making the two technologies complementary in many ways

Keywords

caesium; frequency measurement; frequency stability; measurement standards; radiation pressure (atoms); xenon; Cs; accuracy; atomic fountain; laser cooling; metastable Xe; microwave clock; microwave fountain; neutral atom frequency standards; optical frequency standard; signal-to-noise ratios; stability; systematic effects; two-photon transition; Atom lasers; Atom optics; Atomic beams; Frequency; Laboratories; Masers; Particle beam optics; Signal to noise ratio; Stability analysis; Xenon;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Proceedings of the IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9219

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/5.84971

Filename

84971