High-performance, compact optical standard

Abstract

We describe a high-performance, compact optical frequency standard based on a microfabricated Rb vapor cell and a low-noise, external cavity diode laser operating on the Rb two-photon transition at 778 nm. The optical standard achieves an instability of 1.8x10${}^{-13}$/$\sqrt{\tau }$ for times less than 100 s and a flicker noise floor of 1x10${}^{-14}$ out to 6000 s. At long integration times, the instability is limited by variations in optical probe power and the AC Stark shift. The retrace was measured to 5.7x10${}^{-13}$ after 30 hours of dormancy. Such a simple, yet high-performance optical standard could be suitable as an accurate realization of the SI meter or, if coupled with an optical frequency comb, as a compact atomic clock comparable to a hydrogen maser.

arXiv comment5 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Compact Optical Atomic Clock Based on a Two-Photon Transition in Rubidium
• Miniaturized optical frequency standard for next-generation portable optical clocks
• Universal methods for suppressing the light shift in atomic clocks using power modulation
• Frequency Shifts due to Stark Effects on a Rb two-photon transition
• Two-photon optical frequency reference with active ac Stark shift cancellation

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• Experimental and theoretical study of dynamic polarizabilities in the $5S_{1/2}$-$5D_{5/2}$ clock transition in rubidium-87 and determination of E1 matrix elements
• Fabrication and characterization of iodine photonic microcell for sub-Doppler spectroscopy and laser stabilization
• Wavefront Curvature in Optical Atomic Beam Clocks
• Phase noise measurement of semiconductor optical amplifiers
• Demonstration of $3.5\times 10^{-13}$ laser frequency stability at 1000 s using an iodine-filled hollow-core fiber photonic microcell
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