Demonstration of a dual alkali Rb/Cs fountain clock

Jocelyne Guéna; Peter Rosenbusch; Philippe Laurent; Michel Abgrall; Daniele Rovera; Giorgio Santarelli; Michael E Tobar; Sébastien Bize; André Clairon

doi:10.1109/TUFFC.2010.1461

Demonstration of a dual alkali Rb/Cs fountain clock

IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control. 2010 Mar;57(3):647-53. doi: 10.1109/TUFFC.2010.1461.

Authors

Jocelyne Guéna¹, Peter Rosenbusch, Philippe Laurent, Michel Abgrall, Daniele Rovera, Giorgio Santarelli, Michael E Tobar, Sébastien Bize, André Clairon

Affiliation

¹ Laboratoire National de Métrologie-Système de Référence Temps Espace, Observatoire de Paris, France. jocelyne.guena@obspm.fr

PMID: 20211784
DOI: 10.1109/TUFFC.2010.1461

Abstract

We report the operation of a dual Rb/Cs atomic fountain clock. (133)Cs and (87)Rb atoms are cooled, launched, and detected simultaneously in LNE-SYRTE's FO2 double fountain. The dual clock operation occurs with no degradation of either the stability or the accuracy. We describe the key features for achieving such a simultaneous operation. We also report on the results of the first Rb/Cs frequency measurement campaign performed with FO2 in this dual atom clock configuration, including a new determination of the absolute (87)Rb hyperfine frequency.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't