Compact microwave cavity for high performance rubidium frequency standards

Stefanucci, Camillo; Bandi, Thejesh; Merli, F.; Pellaton, M.; Affolderbach, C.; Mileti, G.; Skrivervik, Anja K.

doi:10.1063/1.4759023

Cited by 69 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(35 reference statements)

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“…In practical realizations, the vapor cell and microwave cavity often have cylindrical geometry. 13,15 Two main requirements apply to the cavity field mode: first, in order to obtain a strong clock transition signal, H should be perfectly parallel to the quantization axis (B dc ) throughout the vapor cell; second, in particular for the POP clock mode, 8,9 the microwave field amplitude should be as homogeneous as possible throughout the cell such that for a given microwave pulse duration, as many atoms as possible undergo an ideal p/2-pulse on the clock transition.…”

Section: à13mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, complex waveguide-based microwave components made by SLA of polymers followed by metal coating were reported, 11 and first simple microwave resonator structures made by SLM of aluminum were demonstrated. 12 It is of interest to exploit AM of microwave cavities for atomic clocks that exhibit more complex geometries, 13 to simplify manufacture and assembly, and-in the case of SLA of polymers-reduce the cavity mass. Recently, we reported on the proof-of-principle realization of a compact microwave cavity for CW-DR atomic clocks using SLA of a polymer.…”

Section: à13mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…12 It is of interest to exploit AM of microwave cavities for atomic clocks that exhibit more complex geometries, 13 to simplify manufacture and assembly, and-in the case of SLA of polymers-reduce the cavity mass. Recently, we reported on the proof-of-principle realization of a compact microwave cavity for CW-DR atomic clocks using SLA of a polymer.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Study of additive manufactured microwave cavities for pulsed optically pumped atomic clock applications

Affolderbach

Moreno

Иванов

et al. 2018

Applied Physics Letters

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Additive manufacturing (AM) of passive microwave components is of high interest for the costeffective and rapid prototyping or manufacture of devices with complex geometries. Here, we present an experimental study on the properties of recently demonstrated microwave resonator cavities manufactured by AM, in view of their applications to high-performance compact atomic clocks. The microwave cavities employ a loop-gap geometry using six electrodes. The critical electrode structures were manufactured monolithically using two different approaches: Stereolithography (SLA) of a polymer followed by metal coating and Selective Laser Melting (SLM) of aluminum. The tested microwave cavities show the desired TE 011 -like resonant mode at the Rb clock frequency of %6.835 GHz, with a microwave magnetic field highly parallel to the quantization axis across the vapor cell. When operated in an atomic clock setup, the measured atomic Rabi oscillations are comparable to those observed for conventionally manufactured cavities and indicate a good uniformity of the field amplitude across the vapor cell. Employing a time-domain Ramsey scheme on one of the SLA cavities, high-contrast (34%) Ramsey fringes are observed for the Rb clock transition, along with a narrow (166 Hz linewidth) central fringe. The measured clock stability of 2.2 Â 10 À13 s À1/2 up to the integration time of 30 s is comparable to the current state-of-the-art stabilities of compact vapor-cell clocks based on conventional microwave cavities and thus demonstrates the feasibil-ity of the approach.Compact microwave atomic clocks 1 based on alkali vapor cells 2,3 are widely employed as stable frequency references in numerous applications, ranging from telecommunication networks 4 to onboard clocks in satellite navigation systems. 5,6 In such atomic clocks, the frequency of a quartz local oscillator is stabilized to an inherently stable microwave transition in an alkali atom vapor held in a vapor cell. This greatly suppresses the quartz's fractional frequency instabilities to the 10 À12 to <10 À14 range (timing accuracies of 0.1 ls to <1 ns, respectively) over timescales up to one day. During the last decade, thanks to the employment of laser optical pumping, important advances were made in vapor-cell Rb atomic clocks based on the double-resonance (DR) scheme, using both the continuouswave (CW) 7 and the pulsed optical pumping (POP) interrogation (Ramsey scheme), 8,9 where the pulsed Ramsey scheme is of particular interest for highly compact and high-performance Rb cell clocks. In all types of DR atomic clocks, the microwave resonator cavity is a critical component for applying the microwave field to the atoms in a well-controlled geometry. In view of practical applications, this microwave cavity should be small and light-weight and feature simple and fast assembly. In DR atomic clocks, such cavities are generally manufactured by conventional subtractive precision machining of metals, often followed by time-consuming assembly steps requiring precise positioning or ali...

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Section: à13mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: à13mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Study of additive manufactured microwave cavities for pulsed optically pumped atomic clock applications

Affolderbach

Moreno

Иванов

et al. 2018

Applied Physics Letters

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show abstract

“…The microwave resonator serves for applying a well-controlled microwave field and at the same time acts as a thermal enclosure. Here we describe the cell-cavity system that is based on previous prototypes realized at UniNe-LTF [4] and is currently being assembled. Previous Rb cell realizations for the POP clock had evidenced enhanced temperature sensitivity (ETS) of the clock transition, due to the cells' stem serving as reservoir of atomic Rb [5].…”

Section: Compact Cell-cavity Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aiming to a further improvement of the clock performances, a new system is being developed taking in particular care the design of the microwave synthesis chain, the thermal stability and uniformity of the Rb cell. Another issue is the overall size of the clock; in this regard, a very compact laser head source has been developed and characterized [3] and a magnetron cavity [4] will be used in the physics package. In this paper, we will discuss the major causes of noise that affect the short and long term stability of the laboratory prototype of the POP clock and how these effects will be mitigated in the new prototype we are developing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%