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arXiv · 1502.03864

Stability of a trapped atom clock on a chip

Ramon Szmuk·Vincent Dugrain·Wilfried Maineult·Jakob Reichel·Peter Rosenbusch
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Abstract

We present a compact atomic clock interrogating ultracold 87Rb magnetically trapped on an atom chip. Very long coherence times sustained by spin self-rephasing allow us to interrogate the atomic transition with 85% contrast at 5 s Ramsey time. The clock exhibits a fractional frequency stability of $5.8\times 10^{-13}$ at 1 s and is likely to integrate into the $1\times10^{-15}$ range in less than a day. A detailed analysis of 7 noise sources explains the measured frequency stability. Fluctuations in the atom temperature (0.4 nK shot-to-shot) and in the offset magnetic field ($5\times10^{-6}$ relative fluctuations shot-to-shot) are the main noise sources together with the local oscillator, which is degraded by the 30% duty cycle. The analysis suggests technical improvements to be implemented in a future second generation set-up. The results demonstrate the remarkable degree of technical control that can be reached in an atom chip experiment.

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Ramon Szmuk, Vincent Dugrain, Wilfried Maineult, Jakob Reichel, Peter Rosenbusch. 2015-06-29. Stability of a trapped atom clock on a chip. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.92.012106

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