Atomic fountain frequency standard: principle and development

Abstract

The principle and development of fountain frequency standard are introduced in this paper. Fountain frequency standard is an atomic clock technology developed in recent 20 years. It is based on laser cooling technology, and realizes the trapping and projection of the cold atom medium with laser cooling technology. In the process of launching upward and falling back, the cold atom medium first completes the preparation of atomic state, then passes through the microwave cavity twice to achieve the Ramsey interaction; between the two interactions it undergoes free evolution, and finally the Ramsey interference fringes are obtained by detecting the atomic interference probability with the two-level fluorescence detection method in the detection region, and the frequency is locked with a line width of the central fringe being about 1 Hz. The stability and uncertainty of the frequency are two important indexes of the fountain frequency standard. The factors influencing the stability of the fountain clock frequency mainly are quantum projection noise and electronic noise. At present, the short term stability of the fountain clock is (10-13-10-14)τ-1/2, and the long term stability is (10-16-10-17). The frequency uncertainty of the fountain frequency standard is mainly influenced by the two-order Zeeman frequency shift, the blackbody radiation frequency shift, the cold atom collisional frequency shift, and the frequency shift relating to the microwave. The uncertainty of the fountain clock is around 10-16 currently. As a reference frequency standard, the working media of the fountain clock mainly are 133Cs and 87Rb. All international metrology institutions have been developing the fountain frequency standard, and it plays a more and more important role in establishing the coordinated universal time and the calibration of the international atomic time. In addition, the fountain frequency standards are also used to study high-precision time-frequency reference and time comparison chain, and verify basic physical theories.