2016/09/30 by B. Lipphardt, Burghard Lipphardt, Vladislav Gerginov +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #Advanced Frequency and Time Standards #Art #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Atomic clock #Computer science #Fountain #Interrogation #Law #Microwave #Optics #Optoelectronics #Physics #Political science #Telecommunications #Visual arts #physics.atom-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1109/tuffc.2017.2649044
published as IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control 64, 761 (2017) · 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table
arxiv created 2016/11/15 · openalex publication_date 2017/01/05 · arxiv updated 2018/10/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We describe an optical frequency stabilization scheme of a microwave oscillator that is used for the interrogation of primary cesium fountain clocks. Because of its superior phase noise properties, this scheme, which is based on an ultrastable laser and a femtosecond laser frequency comb, overcomes the frequency instability limitations of fountain clocks given by the previously utilized quartz-oscillator-based frequency synthesis. The presented scheme combines the transfer of the short-term frequency instability of an optical cavity and the long-term frequency instability of a hydrogen maser to the microwave oscillator and is designed to provide continuous long-term operation for extended measurement periods of several weeks. The utilization of the twofold stabilization scheme on the one hand ensures the referencing of the fountain frequency to the hydrogen maser frequency and on the other hand results in a phase noise level of the fountain interrogation signal, which enables fountain frequency instabilities at the 2.5 × 10-14(τ/s)-1/2level that are quantum projection noise limited.