Title :
Initial evaluation of the USNO rubidium fountain
Author :
Peil, S. ; Crane, S. ; Swanson, T. ; Ekstrom, C.R.
Author_Institution :
Clock Dev. Div., U.S. Naval Obs., Washington, DC, USA
Abstract :
We discuss the first rubidium atomic fountain at the U. S. Naval Observatory, NRF1, which has been built as a prototype for future devices to be included in the USNO timescale. The system has demonstrated a short-term Allan deviation of 1.35×1013/τ1/2 when measured against a hydrogen maser. We have directly compared NRF1´s performance to that of our cesium fountain, NCF, demonstrating integration as 1/τ1/2 below 1×10-15, and performance that is consistent with 7×10-16 at 11 hours.
Keywords :
atomic clocks; masers; rubidium; NRF1; Rb; U. S. Naval Observatory; USNO rubidium atomic fountain clock; cesium fountain clock; hydrogen maser; short-term Allan deviation; time 11 hour; Atomic clocks; Crystals; Frequency measurement; Hydrogen; Masers; Noise;
Conference_Titel :
Frequency and Time Forum (EFTF), 2006 20th European
Conference_Location :
Braunschweig
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-2642-1
