Light shift measurements in a cesium fountain without the use of mechanical shutters

We present measurements confirming operation of a cesium fountain frequency standard with light shift below 10^-15 (and with evidence suggesting it is several orders of magnitude below this level) but without the use of mechanical shutters. Suppression of the light shift is realized using a master-slave laser configuration by reducing the overall optical power delivered to the physics package as well as spoiling the injection of the slave, causing it to lase far off resonance (1-2 nm) as proposed by the authors several years ago (Klipstein, 2002). In the absence of any mitigation, this (AC Stark) shift, due to near-resonant laser light reaching the atoms during their microwave interrogation period, is the largest shift in such frequency standards (2 × 10^-11 for our fountain). Mechanical shutters provided adequate light attenuation but have been prone to failure.