Key Parameters Control of Optically Pumped Cesium Beam Atomic Clock

Abstract

Cesium beam clock is long-term punctual atomic clock. It plays an important role in the field of satellite positioning and navigation. Its stability directly determines the positioning accuracy of the global positioning system. It is one of the key technologies that China needs to develop in the field of time and frequency. The current commercialized cesium beam clocks are all magnetically-selected cesium atomic clocks, and optically pumped cesium beam atomic clocks have been proposed to achieve better stability because of their high utilization of atoms. Many institutions have carried out research for this purpose for many years. Nowadays, the development of commercialized optically pumped Cesium beam clock is advanced gradually. The Atomic Clock Technology group of Peking University has been working on the research of optically pumped atomic clocks for many years. The experimental prototype has made a breakthrough. This paper aims to introduce the key parameters control of the clock, which affect the performance of the atomic clock. By studying the control circuits, we improve and make full use of the high signal-to-noise ratio of the optically pumped atomic clock. So, we realized the effective improvement of the short-and-medium-term stability of the optically pumped atomic clock, two to three times better than 5071A High Performance. Meanwhile, our products could have three times longer lifetime. The overall indicator has reached the leading level in the world.