The pulsed optically pumped Rb frequency standard: A proposal for a space atomic clock

Author

Micalizio, S. ; Godone, A. ; Levi, F. ; Francois, B. ; Calosso, C.E. ; Battisti, A. ; Gioia, M. ; Borella, A.

Author_Institution

Phys. Metrol. Dept., Ist. Naz. di Ricerca Metrol. (INRIM), Turin, Italy

fYear

2015

fDate

4-5 June 2015

Firstpage

384

Lastpage

388

Abstract

In this work we describe the main features of a Rb clock developed at INRIM and its preliminary industrialization approach made by Selex-ES. The clock operates at the Rb ground-state hyperfine frequency (6834 MHz) in pulsed regime; the pulsed optical pumping (POP) allows to make negligible the mutual interference between optical and microwave signals so that a frequency stability comparable to that of a passive H-maser has been achieved but with a much simpler system. The industrialization plan aims at investigating the possibility to reproduce the good results obtained by the INRIM laboratory prototype into a device suited to work in space.

Keywords

aerospace instrumentation; atomic clocks; frequency stability; optical pumping; POP; Rb ground-state hyperfine frequency; frequency stability; industrialization approach; microwave signals; mutual interference; optical signals; passive H-maser; pulsed optically pumped Rb frequency standard; space atomic clock; Atomic clocks; Laser stability; Optical buffering; Optical polarization; Optical pumping; Physics; atomic clock; frequency stability; global navigation satellite system; pulsed optical pumping;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Metrology for Aerospace (MetroAeroSpace), 2015 IEEE

Conference_Location

Benevento

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MetroAeroSpace.2015.7180687

Filename

7180687