JPL Ultrastable Trapped Ion Atomic Frequency Standards

• Published in: IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control Vol. 63; no. 7; pp. 1013 - 1021
• Main Authors: Burt, Eric A., Lin Yi, Tucker, Blake, Hamell, Robert, Tjoelker, Robert L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.07.2016; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Adhesion; Atomic clocks; Clocks; compensated multipole trapped ion atomic clock; Ferroelectric materials; Frequency standards; Gettering; ion traps; Miniature; Neon; Solenoids; Stability; Thermal stability; Uncertainty
• ISSN: 0885-3010; 1525-8955
• DOI: 10.1109/TUFFC.2016.2572701

Recently, room temperature trapped ion atomic clock development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has focused on three directions: 1) ultrastable atomic clocks, usually for terrestrial applications emphasizing ultimate stability performance and autonomous timekeeping; 2) new atomic clock technology for space flight applications that require strict adherence to size, weight, and power requirements; and 3) miniature clocks. In this paper, we concentrate on the first direction and present a design and the initial results from a new ultrastable clock referred to as L10 that achieves a short-term stability of 4.5 × 10 -14 /τ 1/2 and an initial measurement of no significant drift with an uncertainty of 2.4 × 10 -16 /day over a two-week period.