Proposal of a dual-ball atomic fountain clock

A simple improved structure is designed to trap and launch two cold atomic balls vertically at the same time,which works like"two fountains",but is more compact since most components of the"two fountains" are shared.It is expected to improve the stability of the fountain markedly.     

Progress of the 87Rb Fountain Clock

A fountain atomic clock based on cold 87Rb atoms has been in operation in our laboratory for several months. We therefore report the design of the rubidium fountain clock including its physical package, optical system and daily operation. Ramsey fringes have been attained with the signal to noise ratio of about 100.     

Magnetic field measurement on ~(87)Rb atomic fountain clock

<正>An experiment on measuring the magnetic field in Ramsey interaction region of the atomic fountain clock by detecting the Zeeman frequency shift of ~(87)Rb hyperfine transition is presented.By mu-metal shielding and coils compensating,the magnetic fluctuations resulting from asymmetry and instability are less than 10 and 0.025 nT,respectively.The relative frequency uncertainty of atomic fountain clock caused by the magnetic field is less than 5.4×10~(-16).     

Realization of an 85Rb Atomic Fountain

An atomic fountain with ^85 Rb cold atoms is reported. A series of time-of-flight signals is obtained, and the measured temperature of the cold atomic cloud is about 2.4μK. It will have potential new applications in the precise measurement of fundamental constants and the proof of the Einstein＇s equivalence principle.     

Optimization of temperature characteristics of a transportable ~(87)Rb atomic fountain clock

A high-performance transportable fountain clock is attractive for use in laboratories with high-precision time-frequency measurement requirements. This Letter reports the improvement of the stability of a transportable rubidium-87 fountain clock because of an optimization of temperature characteristics. This clock integrates its physical packaging, optical benches, microwave frequency synthesizers, and electronic controls onto an easily movable wheeled plate. Two optical benches with a high-vibration resistance are realized in this work. No additional adjustment is required after moving them several times. The Allan deviation of the fountain clock frequency was measured by comparing it with that of the hydrogen maser. The fountain clock got a short-term stability of 2.3 × 10~(-13) at 1 s and long-term stability on the order of 10~(-16) at 100,000 s.     

Loss of cold atoms due to collisions with residual gases in free flight in a magneto-optical trap

The loss rate of cold atoms in a trap due to residual gas collisions differs from that in a free state after the cold atoms are released from the trap. In this paper, the loss rate in a cold rubidium-87 atom cloud was measured in a magneto-optical trap(MOT) and during its free flight. The residual gas pressure was analyzed by a residual gas analyzer, and the pressure distribution in a vacuum chamber was numerically calculated by the angular coefficient method. The decay factor, which describes the decay behavior of cold atoms due to residual gas collisions during a free flight, was calculated. It was found that the decay factor agrees well with theoretical predictions under various vacuum conditions.     

光纤1/f热噪声的实验研究

光纤热噪声是限制光纤传感、测量系统性能的最终因素.但是低频区域呈1/f谱特性的光纤热噪声的形成机制迄今仍然存在争论.实验研究了光纤1/f热噪声水平与光纤内杂质离子浓度和光纤施加张力的关系,验证了这类热噪声来源于光纤内部的机械耗散引起的长度自发抖动,符合热机械噪声的理论假设.     

All-fiber-based laser with 200 mHz linewidth

We demonstrate the frequency stabilization of a 1.55 μm erbium-doped fiber laser by locking it to a 5-km-long optical fiber delay line(FDL). The stabilized laser is characterized via comparison with a second identical laser system. We obtain a fractional frequency stability of better than 3 × 10~(-15) over time scales of 1–10 s and a laser linewidth of 0.2 Hz, which is the narrowest linewidth of an FDL-stabilized laser observed to date.     

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.