We present our ongoing development of a compact (<1.5 liters) and high-performance (10^-14 at 10⁴ s) laser-pumped Rubidium clock for space applications like, e.g., satellite navigation systems (GALILEO). A compact laser head was developed that includes frequency stabilization of the pump light to a reference cell. Recent clock stability results obtained with this laser head reach 2⋅10^-13 at 1000s, limited mainly by residual cell temperature coefficients and light shift effects. We discuss strategies to overcome these limitations and the relationship between the stabilities of the pump laser and the clock. Comparisons of the laser and clock frequency stabilities are presented for stabilization to both Doppler and sub-Doppler spectroscopy.

Date Published: 21 November 2017
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 10568, International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2004, 1056818 (21 November 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2307986

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10568:
International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2004
Josiane Costeraste; Errico Armandillo, Editor(s)