English

A pulsed optically pumped Rb clock with a frequency stability below 10-15

Atomic Physics 2023-08-30 v1 Instrumentation and Detectors Optics

Abstract

We present the frequency stability performances of a vapor cell Rb clock based on the pulsed optically pumping (POP) technique. The clock has been developed in the frame of a collaboration between INRIM and Leonardo SpA, aiming to realize a space-qualified POP frequency standard. The results here reported were obtained with an engineered physics package, specifically designed for space applications, joint to laboratory-grade optics and electronics. The measured frequency stability expressed in terms of Allan deviation is 1.2×10131.2 \times 10^{-13} at 1 s and achieves the value of 6×10166 \times 10^{-16} for integration times of 40000 s (drift removed). This is, to our knowledge, a record result for a vapor-cell frequency standard. In the paper, we show that in order to get this result, a careful stabilization of microwave and laser pulses is required.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2308.15249,
  title  = {A pulsed optically pumped Rb clock with a frequency stability below 10-15},
  author = {Michele Gozzelino and Salvatore Micalizio and Claudio E. Calosso and Jacopo Belfi and Adalberto Sapia and Marina Gioia and Filippo Levi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.15249},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T12:07:17.819Z