Cold atom Clocks and Applications

Abstract

This paper describes advances in microwave frequency standards using laser-cooled atoms at BNM-SYRTE. First, recent improvements of the ${}^{133}$Cs and ${}^{87}$Rb atomic fountains are described. Thanks to the routine use of a cryogenic sapphire oscillator as an ultra-stable local frequency reference, a fountain frequency instability of $1.6\times 10^{-14}{\tau }^{-1/2}$ where $\tau$ is the measurement time in seconds is measured. The second advance is a powerful method to control the frequency shift due to cold collisions. These two advances lead to a frequency stability of $2\times 10^{-16}$ at $50,000sforthefirsttimeforprimarystandards.Inaddition,theseclocksrealizetheSIsecondwithanaccuracyof$7\times 10^{-16}$,oneorderofmagnitudebelowthatofuncooleddevices.Inasecondpart,wedescribetestsofpossiblevariationsoffundamentalconstantsusing$^{87}$Rband$^{133}$Cs fountains. Finally we give an update on the cold atom space clock PHARAO developed in collaboration with CNES. This clock is one of the main instruments of the ACES/ESA mission which is scheduled to fly on board the International Space Station in 2008, enabling a new generation of relativity tests.

30 pages, 11 figures

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• Testing General Relativity with Atom Interferometry
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• New Limits on Coupling of Fundamental Constants to Gravity Using ${}^{87}$Sr Optical Lattice Clocks
• Progress in Atomic Fountains at LNE-SYRTE
• Control of Interaction-Induced Dephasing of Bloch Oscillations
• Comparison of Two Independent Sr Optical Clocks with 1e-17 Stability at 10^3 s
• General Relativistic Effects in Atom Interferometry
• Nuclear Spin Effects in Optical Lattice Clocks
• ${}^{87}$Sr lattice clock with inaccuracy below 10${}^{-15}$
• Orientation-Dependent Entanglement Lifetime in a Squeezed Atomic Clock
• Ultra-low noise microwave generation with fiber-based optical frequency comb and application to atomic fountain clock
• Cold Atom Clock Test of Lorentz Invariance in the Matter Sector
• Rabi Spectroscopy and Excitation Inhomogeneity in a 1D Optical Lattice Clock
• Absolute frequency measurement of the 40Ca+ S1/2 - D5/2 clock transition
• Optical atomic coherence at the one-second time scale
• The absolute frequency of the 87Sr optical clock transition
• Axion Dark Matter Detection with Cold Molecules
• Transitionless quantum drivings for the harmonic oscillator
• Frictionless atom cooling in harmonic traps: a time-optimal approach
• Non-destructive measurement of the transition probability in a Sr optical lattice clock
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• An Optical Lattice Clock with Spin-polarized 87Sr Atoms
• Perspective: Tipping the scales - search for drifting constants from molecular spectra
• AC Stark shift of the Cs microwave atomic clock transitions
• Compact chip-scale guided cold atom gyrometers for inertial navigation: Enabling technologies and design study
• Cryogenic sapphire oscillator with exceptionally high long-term frequency stability
• `Stückelberg interferometry' with ultracold molecules
• From Optical Lattice Clocks to the Measurement of Forces in the Casimir Regime
• Improving cold-atom sensors with quantum entanglement: Prospects and challenges
• Demonstration of a Dual Alkali Rb/Cs Atomic Fountain Clock
• Magic frequencies for cesium primary frequency standard
• Invited Review: Micro-fabricated components for cold atom sensors
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• Dynamic cancellation of ac Stark shift for pulsed EIT/Raman optical lattice clocks
• Diffraction grating characterisation for cold-atom experiments
• Non-destructive selective probing of phononic excitations in a cold Bose gas using impurities
• Lorentz-symmetry test at Planck-scale suppression with nucleons in a spin-polarized ${}^{133}$Cs cold atom clock
• Measurement of Vacuum Pressure with a Magneto-Optical Trap: a Pressure-Rise Method
• An Ultra-Stable Referenced Interrogation System in the Deep Ultraviolet for a Mercury Optical Lattice Clock
• Measurement of fundamental thermal noise limit in a cryogenic sapphire frequency standard using bimodal maser oscillations
• Generalized Hyper-Ramsey Resonance with separated oscillating fields
• Trapping atoms with radio-frequency adiabatic potentials
• Gyromagnetic Factors and Atomic Clock Constraints on the Variation of Fundamental Constants
• Cavity Sub- and Superradiance Enhanced Ramsey Spectroscopy
• Probing unification scenarios with atomic clocks
• Testing the Stability of the Fine Structure Constant in the Laboratory
• Micromagic clock: microwave clock based on atoms in an engineered optical lattice
• Cosmological Evolution of Fundamental Constants: From Theory to Experiment
• Advances in Development of Quartz Crystal Oscillators at Liquid Helium Temperatures
• Fast transitionless expansions of Gaussian anharmonic traps for cold atoms: bang-singular-bang control
• Possible variations of the fine structure constant $\alpha$ and their metrological significance
• Shelving spectroscopy of the strontium intercombination line
• Precision measurements with cold atoms and trapped ions
• Application of lasers to ultracold atoms and molecules
• Testing fundamental physics with photon frequency shift
• Probing Bosonic Stars with Atomic Clocks
• Tailoring of motional states in double-well potentials by time-dependent processes
• Time dependence of laser cooling in optical lattices
• Damping of local Rabi oscillations in the presence of thermal motion
• Using graphene conductors to enhance the functionality of atom-chips
• Optimization and analysis of experimental parameters for polarization gradient cooling in optical molasses
• Harnessing synthetic gauge fields for maximally entangled state generation
• A planar cloverleaf antenna for the creation of circularly polarized microwave fields
• Ramsey interferometry with oppositely detuned fields
• Measurement of the Spin-forbidden Decay rate (3s3d)${}^1$D${}_2$ $\to$ (3s3p)${}^3$P${}_{2,1}$ in ${}^{24}$Mg
• Dual-frequency Doppler-free spectroscopy for simultaneous laser stabilisation in compact atomic physics experiments
• Quantum Sensing Using Atomic Clocks for Nuclear and Particle Physics
• Tailoring sub-Doppler spectra of thermal atoms with a dielectric optical metasurface chip
• Neutrino Velocity and the Variability of Fundamental Constants
• Minimum-Time Frictionless Atom Cooling in Harmonic Traps
• Time-Optimal Frictionless Atom Cooling in Harmonic Traps
• Optical force acting on strongly driven atoms in free space or modified reservoirs