A Cesium fountain frequency standard: Preliminary results

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:125719

Clairon, A; Laurent, P; Santarelli, G ^[1]

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1. Observatoire de Paris (France); and others

Laser cooling of atoms has opened up new possibilities in the field of atomic frequency standards. A Cesium atomic fountain, first proposed by Zacharias in 1953, is now feasible: the atoms, first cooled by six laser beams, are launched upward using laser light, pass once through a microwave cavity, continue their ballistic flight and then fall through the same cavity. The long time between the two microwave interactions leads to a Ramsey resonance much narrower than in conventional Cs clocks using thermal atomic beams. The stability and accuracy of such a cesium fountain am very attractive. The use of diode lasers to cool, launch and detect cesium atoms in a low cesium pressure cell allows the construction of a simple and reliable atomic fountain frequency standard. A fountain frequency standard is now in operation at LPTF. A Ramsey resonance as narrow as 0.8 Hz has been obtained. A few days of continuous operation are routinely obtained. In closed loop operation the fountain frequency standard is continuously monitored against a H maser allowing an evaluation of the accuracy of the device. The present short- term frequency stability is about 5.10{sup -13} {tau}{sup -1/2} limited only by the frequency noise of the microwave source. We intend to present a preliminary evaluation of this new standard with a discussion of the major systematic effects which determine the accuracy. The expected accuracy will be at 10-14 level. In addition, we will present a description of the whole design of the cesium fountain.

• OSTI ID: 125719
• Report Number(s): CONF-940603--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
CALIBRATION STANDARDS
CESIUM IONS
FREQUENCY ANALYSIS
FREQUENCY MEASUREMENT
RESONANCE