A novel method to compensate for the effect of light shift in a rubidium atomic clock pumped by a semiconductor laser

Author

Hashimot, Minoru ; Ohtsu, Motoichi

Author_Institution

Tokyo Inst. of Technol., Yokohama, Japan

Volume

39

Issue

3

fYear

1990

fDate

6/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

458

Lastpage

462

Abstract

Precise measurement of the shift (i.e. microwave frequency shift induced by the electric field of the pumping light) in a rubidium atomic clock pumped by a semiconductor laser is discussed. The spectral lineshape of the microwave resonance, which is used as a frequency discriminator for the atomic clock in the optical microwave double resonance experiment, depends strongly on the spatial distribution of the laser beam intensity, laser frequency detuning, and modulation parameters of the microwave frequency. Based on measurements of the deformation of the resonance lineshape, a self-tuning system was built to compensate for the effect of light shift. As a result of controlling the laser frequency with this system, long-term drift of the microwave frequency as low as 6.3×10^-13/h was obtained

Keywords

atomic clocks; laser beam applications; laser frequency stability; microwave spectra of atoms; optical pumping; rubidium; semiconductor junction lasers; spectral line shift; ⁸⁷Rb; atomic clock; deformation; electric field; frequency discriminator; laser beam intensity; laser frequency detuning; light shift; long-term drift; microwave frequency shift; microwave resonance; modulation parameters; optical microwave double resonance experiment; pumping light; self-tuning; semiconductor laser; spatial distribution; spectral lineshape; Atom lasers; Atomic clocks; Atomic measurements; Laser excitation; Masers; Microwave frequencies; Optical modulation; Pump lasers; Resonance; Semiconductor lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9456

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/19.106272

Filename

106272