A cold-atom beam clock based on coherent population trapping.

We present results from an atomic clock that employs a beam of cold Rb atoms and spatially separated (Ramsey) coherent population trapping interrogation of the hyperfine clock transition at 6.834 GHz. The cold atomic beam is generated through the use of a 2D-magnetooptical trap.

High-accuracy measurement of the blackbody radiation frequency shift of the ground-state hyperfine transition in 133Cs.

We report a high-accuracy direct measurement of the blackbody radiation shift of the 133Cs ground-state hyperfine transition. This frequency shift is one of the largest systematic frequency biases encountered in realizing the current definition of the International System of Units (SI) second. Uncertainty in the blackbody radiation frequency shift correction has led to its being the focus of intense theoretical effort by a variety of research groups.

Polarization-enhanced absorption spectroscopy for laser stabilization.

We demonstrate a variation of pump-probe spectroscopy that is particularly useful for laser frequency stabilization. The polarization-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (POLEAS) signal provides a significant improvement in signal-to-noise ratio over saturated absorption spectroscopy (SAS) for the important and commonly used atomic cycling transitions. The improvements can directly increase the short-term stability of a laser frequency lock, given sufficient servo loop bandwidth.

Cryogenic fountain development at NIST and INRIM: preliminary characterization.

This paper describes the new twin laser-cooled Cs fountain primary frequency standards NIST-F2 and ITCsF2, and presents some of their design features. Most significant is a cryogenic microwave interrogation region which dramatically reduces the blackbody radiation shift. We also present a preliminary accuracy evaluation of IT-CsF2.

Spin-1/2 optical lattice clock.

We experimentally investigate an optical clock based on ;{171}Yb (I = 1/2) atoms confined in an optical lattice. We have evaluated all known frequency shifts to the clock transition, including a density-dependent collision shift, with a fractional uncertainty of 3.4 x 10;{-16}, limited principally by uncertainty in the blackbody radiation Stark shift.