Dual-frequency optical-microwave atomic clocks based on cesium atoms

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the realization of dual-frequency cesium atomic clocks operating in optical and microwave regimes, achieving high stability and paving the way for advanced quantum metrology and practical clock deployment.

Contribution

It introduces a method to switch between and operate both optical and microwave cesium clocks using a single laser, with significant stability improvements.

Findings

Optical clock stability of 3.89×10^-13 at 1 s

Microwave clock stability of 1.84×10^-12/√τ

Microwave clock reaches 5.99×10^-15 at 10^5 s

Abstract

$^{133}$Cs, which is the only stable cesium (Cs) isotope, is one of the most investigated elements in atomic spectroscopy and was used to realize the atomic clock in 1955. Among all atomic clocks, the cesium atomic clock has a special place, since the current unit of time is based on a microwave transition in the Cs atom. In addition, the long lifetime of the $6{\text{P}}_{3/2}$ state and simple preparation technique of Cs vapor cells have great relevance to quantum and atom optics experiments, which suggests the use of the $6{\text{S}} - 6{\text{P}}$ D2 transition as an optical frequency standard. In this work, using one laser as the local oscillator and Cs atoms as the quantum reference, we realized two atomic clocks in the optical and microwave frequencies, respectively. Both clocks could be freely switched or simultaneously output. The optical clock based on the vapor cell continuously operated with a frequency stability of $3.89 \times {10^{ - 13}}$ at 1 s, decreasing to $2.17 \times {10^{ - 13}}$ at 32 s, which was frequency stabilized by modulation transfer spectroscopy and estimated by an optical comb. Then, applying this stabilized laser for an optically pumped Cs beam atomic clock to reduce the laser frequency noise, we obtained a microwave clock with a frequency stability of $1.84 \times {10^{ - 12}}/\sqrt \tau $, reaching $5.99 \times {10^{ - 15}}$ at $10^5$ s. This study demonstrates an attractive feature for the commercialization and deployment of optical and microwave clocks and will guide further development of integrated atomic clocks with better stability. Thus, this study lays the groundwork for future quantum metrology and laser physics.