Universal methods for suppressing the light shift in atomic clocks using power modulation

TL;DR

This paper introduces universal power modulation techniques to suppress light shifts in atomic clocks, enhancing their accuracy by stabilizing the local oscillator and correcting optical field-induced shifts across various clock types.

Contribution

It proposes a novel, broadly applicable method using power modulation to reduce light shifts in atomic clocks, applicable to optical and microwave types.

Findings

Effective suppression of light shift demonstrated

Applicable to various atomic clock types

Suitable for high-precision and commercial clocks

Abstract

We show that the light shift in atomic clocks can be suppressed using time variation of the interrogation field intensity. By measuring the clock output at two intensity levels, error signals can be generated that simultaneously stabilize a local oscillator to an atomic transition and correct for the shift of this transition caused by the interrogating optical field. These methods are suitable for optical clocks using one- and two-photon transitions, as well as for microwave clocks based on coherent population trapping or direct interrogation. The proposed methods can be widely used both for high-precision scientific instruments and for a wide range of commercial clocks, including chip-scale atomic clocks.