We propose and investigate a scheme for differential detection of the magneto-optic rotation (MOR) effect, where a linearly polarized bichromatic laser field is coherent population-trapping (CPT)-resonant with alkali atoms, and discuss the application of this effect to CPT-based atomic clocks. The results of our study indicate that laser noise in a vertical cavity surface-emitting laser-based CPT atomic clock can be effectively suppressed by the proposed scheme. The proposed scheme promises to realize a packaged MOR-CPT atomic clock that has significantly better frequency stability coupled with similar power consumption, volume, and cost when compared with currently available packaged CPT atomic clocks.

A scheme is investigated for a coherent population trapping (CPT) atomic clock, wherein the polarization of a beam produced by a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser is converted to an elliptically polarized beam that interacts with alkali atoms, where the CPT signal is extracted by differentially detecting the magneto-optically rotated light within the transmitted beam. The scheme eliminates the spin-polarized trap state of the atoms and the unwanted background signal, and suppresses in the CPT signal the noise converted from the laser noise. This result reveals the promise of this scheme for realizing a compact CPT atomic clock possessing a significantly improved frequency stability compared to current compact CPT atomic clock devices, coupled with similar power consumption, volume, and cost therewith.

We report on research into a microfabricated 87Rb vapor cell with differential detection. Elliptically polarized light is used to interact with alkali atoms to generate coherent population trapping (CPT) resonance, and the CPT signal is obtained by detecting the Faraday rotation effect with differential detection technology. To move closer to an actual chip-scale atomic clock (CSAC), we reduce the volume of the experimental apparatus and use a divergent laser beam to interact with the atoms. We obtain the short-term frequency stability of the CSAC based on the differential detection scheme and compare it with that of a conventional CSAC. The results show that the frequency stability is more than two times better than that of current commercial CSAC devices with the same power consumption and volume.