Optical Stabilization of a Microwave Oscillator for Fountain Clock Interrogation

TL;DR

This paper presents an optical frequency stabilization scheme for microwave oscillators used in fountain clocks, significantly reducing phase noise and improving long-term stability by combining optical cavity and hydrogen maser references.

Contribution

It introduces a novel stabilization method using an ultrastable laser and femtosecond frequency comb to enhance fountain clock interrogation.

Findings

Achieved phase noise levels enabling quantum projection noise limited performance.

Extended measurement periods of several weeks with stable operation.

Improved frequency instability to 2.5×10⁻¹⁴ (τ/s)^{-1/2} level.

Abstract

We describe an optical frequency stabilization scheme of a microwave oscillator that is used for the interrogation of primary caesium 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 $2.5 \times 10^{-14} (\tau /\mathrm{s})^{-1/2}$ level which are quantum projection noise limited.