Characterization of light shift below 10(-15) in a cesium fountain frequency standard operated without the use of mechanical shutters

Daphna G Enzer; William M Klipstein

doi:10.1109/tuffc.2006.1678184

Characterization of light shift below 10(-15) in a cesium fountain frequency standard operated without the use of mechanical shutters

IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control. 2006 Sep;53(9):1564-9. doi: 10.1109/tuffc.2006.1678184.

Authors

Daphna G Enzer¹, William M Klipstein

Affiliation

¹ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. Daphna.G.Enzer@jpl.nasa.gov

PMID: 16964906
DOI: 10.1109/tuffc.2006.1678184

Abstract

We characterize the light shift in the interaction region of a laser-cooled frequency standard and demonstrate an approach for its mitigation without the use of mechanical shutters. The light shift is confirmed to be below 10-15 and expected to be orders of magnitude lower. This technique makes use of a master-slave laser configuration where cutting the injection power to a slave laser causes it to lase at its free-running wavelength, often two or more nanometers off from the atomic resonance.