The transportable cesium fountain clock NIM5: its construction and performance

The second laser cooling cesium fountain clock NIM5 at the National Institute of Metrology (NIM) China adopts the (1,1,1) direct optical molasses ( OM) configuration. NIM5 has been running with a stability of 3×10⁻¹⁵/d and an operation ratio of 99% since 2007. Preliminary evaluations of NIM5 in 2008 showed a typical combined uncertainty of 3×10⁻¹⁵. The NIM5 clock is operating in parallel with NIM’s first fountain clock NIM4. NIM4 and NIM5 are used to steer the frequency of the calculated NIM atomic time TA-c(NIM) and the first set of results are promising. We are now at the stage of comparing the frequency of NIM5 with UTC to support the independent frequency shift evaluations of NIM5 and contribute to the international atomic time in the near future.      

Melting behaviours of nickel nanorods

We report the synthesis and measurement of an ultra-precise and extremely stable optical frequency in the telecommunications window around 1543 nm. Using a fibre-based femtosecond frequency comb we have phase-stabilised a fibre laser at 194 THz to an optical frequency standard at 344 THz, thus transferring the properties of the optical frequency standard to another spectral region. Relative to the optical frequency standard, the synthesised frequency at 194 THz is determined to within 1 mHz and its fractional frequency instability is measured to be less than 2×10^-15 at 1 s, reaching 5× 10^-18 after 8000 s. We also measured the synthesised frequency against a caesium fountain clock: here the frequency comparison itself contributes less than 4 mHz (2×10^-17) to the uncertainty. Our results confirm the suitability of fibre based frequency comb technology for precision measurements and frequency synthesis, and enable long-distance comparison of optical clocks by using optical fibres to transmit the frequency information.     

Frequency Stability of Atomic Clocks Based on Coherent Population Trapping Resonance in ^85Rb

An atomic clock system based on coherent population trapping （CPT） resonance in 85Rb is reported, while most past works about the CPT clock are in ST Rb. A new modulation method （full-hyperfine-frequency-splitting modulation） is presented to reduce the effect of light shift to improve the frequency stability of the CPT clock in SSRb. The experimental results show that the short-term frequency stability of the CPT clock in SSRb is in the order of 10^-10/s and the long-term frequency stability can achieve 1.5 × 10^-11/80000s, which performs as well as 87 Rb in CPT resonance. This very good frequency stability performance associated with the low-cost and low-power properties of SSRb indicates that an atomic clock based on CPT in SSRb should be a promising candidate for making the chip scale atomic clock.     

石油醚在流体静高压下的超声声速、衰减、密度和绝热压缩系数

 专门设计了用脉冲-回波-重合法在不同静水压下测量液体声速的装置，并对石油醚在0.1~650 MPa流体静压力范围内测量了其超声声速和衰减系数。还通过测量体积压缩量和质量得到石油醚密度ρ随流体静压力的变化。最后，给出了石油醚的绝热压缩系数β与流体静压力的关系。     

Magnetic field measurement based on a stimulated two-photon Raman transition

The magnetic field in the microwave interaction zone of the fountain atomic clock was measured by stimulated Raman transitions.By measuring the two-photon transition frequency between the Zeeman levels of the two ground states,we achieved a magnetic field measurement accuracy of the order of 0.28 nT.This method is immune to the Doppler shift and the AC Stark shift.The second order Zeeman shift of the fountain clock is 170.7×10-15,with the uncertainty of 7.2×10-16.     

Measurement of Density Inhomogeneity for Glass Pendulum

The density inhomogeneity of a glass pendulum is determined by an optical interference method. The relative variations of the densities over a volume with sizes of 5 × 5×5 mm^3 are （0.64 ± 0.97） × 10^-5 and （0.99 ± 0.92） × 10^-5 for the K9 glass and silica glass pendulum, respectively. These variations of densities contributing to the relative uncertainties of the Newtonian gravitational constant G are 0.20 ppm and 0.21 ppm in our experiment on measurement of G.     

Effects of Proton Irradiation on a CMOS Image Sensor

We perform 9 MeV proton irradiation of a complementary metal oxide semiconductor （CMOS） image sensor at doses from 1 × 10^9 to 4 × 10^10 cm^-2. In general, the average brightness of dark output images increases with an increasing dose, and reaches the maximum at 1 × 10^10 cm^-2. The captured colour images become very blurry at 4 × 10^10 cm^-2. These can be explained by change of concentrations of irradiation-induced electron-hole pairs and vacancies in the various layers of CMOS image sensor calculated by the TRIM simulation programme with dose.     

Measurement of the KLL Dielectronic Recombination Resonances in He-like to C-like Kr Ions

The KLL dielectronic recombination processes of highly charged He-like to C-like Kr ions have been studied experimentally. The measurement was performed on the newly developed Shanghai electron beam ion trap （Shanghai-EBIT） facility. Characteristic x-rays from both dielectronic recombination and radiative recombination are detected as the electron beam energy is scanned through the resonances. The KLL resonant strengths obtained are 5.41×10^-19, 4.33×10^-19, 3.59×10^-19, 2.05×10^-19 and 0.98×10^-19 cm^2 eV for He-like to C-like Kr ions, respectively.     

Spin polarization in a freely evolving sample of cold atoms

We have implemented and optimized a technique of spin polarization by optical pumping in a caesium atomic fountain, gaining a nearly fivefold increase in the useful cold atom signal in detection. This allows an improvement of the fountain clock stability without compromising its accuracy. We present a detailed study of optical pumping in a freely evolving cloud of cold caesium atoms: we have investigated theoretically and experimentally the dynamics of the pumping process and the associated heating due to random photon scattering. The heating limits the potential gain in the fountain signal due to an additional cloud expansion. A high degree of spin polarization was achieved with accumulation of up to 97 % of the population in a single magnetic (m _F  = 0) sublevel of the ground state. Factors affecting the achievable spin polarizations, such as the purity of the pumping light polarization and the shadowing effect in the cloud, were considered. This technique may also be used in atom interferometers and for other alkali metal systems.     

Comment on `Electronic Properties of Red P-Type Tl2S5 Single Crystals'

Recently, Gamal et al. [Chin. Phys. Lett. 22 (2005) 1530] reported the results of electrical conductivity, Hall effect and thermoelectric measurements on p-type Tl₂S₅ single crystals. From the experimental data for the temperature dependence of differential thermoelectric power, Gamal et al. determined thevalues of 2.66×10^-41kg and 2.50×10^-41kg, respectively, for the effective masses of electrons and holes in p-type Tl₂S₅, which are about ten orders of magnitude smaller than the free electron mass (9.11×10^-31kg). We argue that the anomalously small values obtained for the effective mass of chargecarriers in Tl₂S₅ have no physical significance.     

Magneto-Optical Trapping of Ytterbium Atoms with a 398.9nm Laser

We report the realization of ytterbium magneto-optical trap （MOT） operating on the dipole-allowed ^1S0 - ^1P1 transition at 398.9nm. The MOT is loaded by a slowed atomic beam produced by a Zeeman slower. All seven stable isotopes of Yb atoms could be trapped separately at different laser detuning values. Over 10^7 174 Yb atoms are collected in the MOT, whereas the atom number of fermionic isotope ^171Yb is roughly 2.3 × 10^6 due to a lower abundance. Without the Zeeman slower the trapped atom numbers are one order of magnitude lower. Both the even and odd isotopes are recognized as excellent candidates of optical clock transition, so the cooling and trapping of ytterbium atoms by the blue MOT is an important step for building an optical clock.     

In-Situ High Pressure Raman Spectrum and Electrical Property of PbMoO4

In-situ high pressure Raman spectra and electrical conductivity measurements of scheelite-structure compound PbMoO4 are presented. The Raman spectrum of PbMoO4 is determined up to 26.5 GPa on a powdered sample in a diamond anvil cell （DAC） under nonhydrostatic conditions. The PbMoO4 gradully experiences the trans- formation from the crystal to amorphous between 9.2 and 12.5 GPa. The crystal to amorphous transition may be due to the mechanical deformation and the crystalographic transformation. Furthermore, the electrical conductivity of PbMoO4 is in situ measured accurately using a microcircuit fabricated on a DAC based on the van der Pauw method. The results show that the electrical conductivity of PbMoO4 increases with increases of pressure and temperature. At 26.5 GPa, the electrical conductivity value of PbMoO4 at 295K is 1.93 - 10-4 S/cm, while it raises by one order of magnitude at 430K and reached 3.33 - 10-3 S/cm. However, at 430K, compared with the electrical conductivity value of PbMoO4 at 26.5 GPa, it drops by about two order magnitude at 7.4 GPa and achieves 2.81 × 10^-5 S/cm. This indicates that the effect of pressure on the electrical conductivity of PbMoO4 is more obvious than that of temperature.     

Continuously transferring cold atoms in caesium double magneto-optical trap

We have established a caesium double magneto-optical trap (MOT) system for cavity-QED experiment, and demonstrated the continuous transfer of cold caesium atoms from the vapour-cell MOT with a pressure of ～ 1×10^-6 Pa to the ultra-high-vacuum (UHV) MOT with a pressure of ～ 8×10^-8 Pa via a focused continuous-wave transfer laser beam. The effect of frequency detuning as well as the intensity of the transfer beam is systematically investigated, which makes the transverse cooling adequate before the atoms leak out of the vapour-cell MOT to reduce divergence of the cold atomic beam. The typical cold atomic flux got from vapour-cell MOT is ～2×10⁷ atoms/s. About 5×10⁶ caesium atoms are recaptured in the UHV MOT.     

Power Consideration for Pulsed Discharges in Potassium Seeded Argon

Minimization of energy consumed in plasma generation is critical for applications, in which a large volume of plasmas is needed. We suggest that a high electron density atmospheric pressure plasmas can be generated by pulsed discharges in potassium seeded argon at an elevated temperature with a very small power input. The ionization efficiency and power budget of pulsed discharges in such plasmas are analytically studied. The results show that ionization efficiency of argon, especially at small reduced electric field E/N （the ratio of the electric field to the gas number density）, is improved effectively in the presence of small amount of potassium additives. Power input of pulsed discharge to sustain a prescribed average level of ionization in potassium seeded argon is three orders of magnitude lower than that in pure argon. Further, unlike in pure argon, it is found that very short high-voltage pulses with very high repetition rates are unnecessary in potassium seeded argon. A pulse with lOOns of pulse duration, 5kHz of repetition rate, and 2Td （1 Td = 1 × 10^-21 Vm^2） of E/N is enough to sustain an electron density of 10^19 m^-3 in 1 arm 1500K Ar＋0.1% K mixture, with a very small power input of about 0.08 × 10^4 W/m^3.     

Ultra-Slow Atomic Beam Generation by Velocity Selective Resonance

We describe a method to generate an ultra-slow atomic beam by velocity selective resonance （VSR）. A VSR experiment on a metastable helium beam in a magnetic field is presented and the results show that the transverse velocity of the deflected beam can be cooled and precisely controlled to less than the recoil velocity, depending on the magnitude of the magnetic field. We extend this idea to a cold atomic cloud to produce an ultra-slow 87Rb beam that can be used as a source of an atomic fountain clock or a space clock.     

AlGaN-Based Solar-Blind Schottky Photodetectors Fabricated on AlN/Sapphire Template

We report AlGaN-based back-illuminated solar-blind Schottky-type ultraviolet photodetectors with the cutoff- wavelength from 280nm to 292nm without bias. The devices show low dark current of 2.1× 10^-6A/cm^2 at the reverse bias of 5 V. The specific detectivity D＊ is estimated to be 3.3 × 10^12cmHz^1/2 W^-1 . To guarantee the performance of the photodetectors, the optimization of AlGaN growth and annealing condition for Schottky contacts were performed. The results show that high-temperature annealing method for Ni/Pt Schottky contacts is effective for the reduction of leakage current.     

Nonlinear Optical Properties of Novel Polymeric Rare Earth Phthalocyanine Studied Using Picosecond Z-Scan Technique

Three novel tri-dimensional phthalocyanine polymers, with lanthanum （LaPPc）, gadolinium （GdPPc） and ytterbium （YbPPc） as centric atoms, have been synthesized from a tetranuclear phthalonitrile. Third-order optical nonlinearities of these compounds in DMF solution are measured by a picosecond Z-sacn technique at 532 nm. It is found that all the compounds show reverse saturation absorption and nonlinear self-focus refraction effect. The second-order molecular hyperpolarizabilities are calculated to be 1.82×10^-23, 1.48×10^-23 and 1.45×10^-23 esu for LaPPc, GdPPc and YbPPc, respectively. The differences among their nonlinear optical properties are attributed to the special tri-dimensional structure and the variation in rare earth atoms.     

Ultra-Stable Rubidium-Stabilized External-Cavity Diode Laser Based on the Modulation Transfer Spectroscopy Technique

We construct an ultra-stable external-cavity diode laser via modulation transfer spectroscopy referencing on a hyperfine component of the ST Rb D2 lines at 780 nm. The Doppler-free dispersion-like modulation transfer signal is obtained with high signal-to-noise-ratio. The instability of the laser frequency is measured by beating with an optical frequency comb which is phase-locked to an ultra-stable oven controlled crystal oscillator. The Allan deviation is 3.9 × 10-13 at I s averaging time and 9.8 ×10-14 at 90s averaging time.     

脉冲激光作用下铝靶的层裂

 本文报导波长为1.06 μm脉宽（FWHM）约4 ns的强脉冲激光辐照下，铝靶发生层裂的实验结果。当入射功率密度在2.0×10¹¹~5×10¹¹ W/cm²范围的激光束作用下，厚度为0.1 mm、0.2 mm的靶在超临界条件下发生层裂，层裂厚度分别在(17±6) μm及(35±5) μm范围。文中使用一种简化模型对阈值条件下不同厚度的靶发生层裂时的层裂片厚度作了近似估算，并与已有的实验结果较好地符合。     

Atomic Diffusion in Cu/Si （111） and Cu/SiO2/Si （111） Systems by Neutral Cluster Beam Deposition

The Cu films are deposited on two kinds of p-type Si （111） substrates by ionized duster beam （ICB） technique. The interface reaction and atomic diffusion of Cu/Si （111） and Cu/SiO2/Si （111） systems are studied at different annealing temperatures by x-ray diffraction （XRD） and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry （RBS）. Some significant results are obtained： For the Cu/Si （111） samples prepared by neutral dusters, the interdiffusion of Cu and Si atoms occurs when annealed at 230℃. The diffusion coefficients of the samples annealed at 230℃ and 500℃ are 8.5 ×10^-15 cm^2.s^-1 and 3.0 ×10^-14 cm^2.s^-1, respectively. The formation of the copper-silicide phase is observed by XRD, and its intensity becomes stronger with the increase of annealing temperature. For the Cu/SiO2//Si （111） samples prepared by neutral dusters, the interdiffusion of Cu and Si atoms occurs and copper silicides are formed when annealed at 450℃. The diffusion coefficients of Cu in Si are calculated to be 6.0 ×10^-16 cm^2.s^-1 at 450℃, due to the fact that the existence of the SiO2 layer suppresses the interdiffusion of Cu and Si.