Atomic Clocks and Coherent Population Trapping: Experiments for Undergraduate Laboratories

Abstract

We demonstrate how to construct and operate a simple and affordable experimental apparatus, appropriate for an undergraduate setting, in order to produce and study coherent effects in atomic vapor and to investigate their applications for metrology. The apparatus consists of a vertical cavity surface emitting diode laser (VCSEL) directly current-modulated using a tunable microwave oscillator to produce multiple optical fields needed for the observation of the coherent population trapping (CPT). This effect allows very accurate measurement of the transition frequency between two ground state hyperfine sublevels (a "clock transition"), that can be used to construct a CPT-based atomic clock.

10 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Performance of a prototype atomic clock based on lin||lin coherent population trapping resonances in Rb atomic vapor
• Buffer-gas induced absorption resonances in Rb vapor

Cited by in corpus (6)

• A practical guide to electromagnetically induced transparency in atomic vapor
• Measurements of vector magnetic field using multiple electromagnetically induced transparency resonances in Rb vapor
• Performance of a prototype atomic clock based on lin||lin coherent population trapping resonances in Rb atomic vapor
• Producing slow light in warm alkali vapor using electromagnetically induced transparency
• Effect of atomic diffusion on the Raman-Ramsey CPT resonances
• Characterization of frequency stability in EIT-based atomic clocks using a differential detection scheme