Atomic clocks based on coherent population trapping: a review

✍ Scribed by J. Vanier

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 912 KB
• Volume: 81
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0721-7269
• DOI: 10.1007/s00340-005-1905-3

✦ Synopsis

The paper gives an overview of the use of the coherent population trapping phenomenon (CPT) in alkalimetal atoms in the implementation of atomic frequency standards. Several avenues are examined. These include: the approach using a combination of the CPT phenomenon and the Ramsey separated interaction field technique on an atomic beam; the passive approach in a cell in which the microwave hyperfine resonance excited by the CPT phenomenon is detected directly on the transmitted radiation; the maser approach in which the same resonance is observed by means of stimulated emission in a microwave cavity-cell arrangement; and, finally, the proposed approach using pulses in a time sequence that implements the combined CPT-Ramsey separated interaction field technique in time rather than in space. A review of field and laboratory implementations using these approaches is made.