NIM5 Cs fountain clock and its evaluation

Abstract

The cesium fountain primary frequency standard NIM5 has been developed at the National Institute of Metrology in China. The NIM5 loads atoms in an optical molasses from the background Cs vapor directly. Atoms are then cooled to a temperature of about 2 μK and launched to a height of 81 cm. The fringes of the Ramsey pattern have a width of 0.98 Hz. The NIM5 operates for more than 300 d a year, operating nearly continuously for 15 d at a time. By stabilizing the 9.19 GHz microwave frequency to the center of the central Ramsey fringe, a typical fractional frequency instability of 3 × 10−13 (τ/s)−1/2 is obtained when running at high atom density, and a combined uncertainty, including Type A and B uncertainties, is typically 1.6 × 10−15. Comparisons of data between NIM5 and 5 other fountain clocks were carried out in May 2013 via two-way satellite time and frequency transfer (TWSTFT), and the results show good agreement within the uncertainties. Six groups of NIM5 data from January to June 2014 have been published in Circular T 319 and 320.