A cold-atom Ramsey clock with a low volume physics package

Bregazzi, A. and Batori, E. and Lewis, B. and Affolderbach, C. and Mileti, G. and Riis, E. and Griffin, P.F. (2024) A cold-atom Ramsey clock with a low volume physics package. Scientific Reports, 14 (1). 931. ISSN 2045-2322 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-51418-8)

[thumbnail of Bregazzi-etal-SR-2024-A-cold-atom-Ramsey-clock-with-a-low-volume-physics-package]
Preview
 Text. Filename: Bregazzi-etal-SR-2024-A-cold-atom-Ramsey-clock-with-a-low-volume-physics-package.pdf
Final Published Version
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 logo
Download (1MB)| Preview

Abstract

We demonstrate a Ramsey-type microwave clock interrogating the 6.835 GHz ground-state transition in cold 87Rb atoms loaded from a grating magneto-optical trap (GMOT) enclosed in an additively manufactured loop-gap resonator microwave cavity. A short-term stability of 1.5×10−11 τ−1/2 is demonstrated, in reasonable agreement with predictions from the signal-to-noise ratio of the measured Ramsey fringes. The cavity-grating package has a volume of ≈67 cm3, ensuring an inherently compact system while the use of a GMOT drastically simplifies the optical requirements for laser cooled atoms. This work is another step towards the realisation of highly compact portable cold-atom frequency standards.

ORCID iDs

Bregazzi, A., Batori, E., Lewis, B., Affolderbach, C., Mileti, G., Riis, E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3225-5302 and Griffin, P.F. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0134-7554;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)