dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaAn experimental study of intermodulation effects in an atomic fountain frequency standard
| Authors | Jocelyne Guéna, Gregor Dudle, Pierre Thomann |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0702164 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0702164 |
| DOI | 10.1051/epjap:2007072 |
| Journal | European Physical Journal Applied Physics, 388 (30/05/2007) 183-189 |
Abstract
The short-term stability of passive atomic frequency standards, especially in pulsed operation, is often limited by local oscillator noise via intermodulation effects. We present an experimental demonstration of the intermodulation effect on the frequency stability of a continuous atomic fountain clock where, under normal operating conditions, it is usually too small to observe. To achieve this, we deliberately degrade the phase stability of the microwave field interrogating the clock transition. We measure the frequency stability of the locked, commercial-grade local oscillator, for two modulation schemes of the microwave field: square-wave phase modulation and square-wave frequency modulation. We observe a degradation of the stability whose dependence with the modulation frequency reproduces the theoretical predictions for the intermodulation effect. In particular no observable degradation occurs when this frequency equals the Ramsey linewidth. Additionally we show that, without added phase noise, the frequency instability presently equal to 2x10-13 at 1s, is limited by atomic shot-noise and therefore could be reduced were the atomic flux increased.
{
"annotation_id": "8d880e27-00e4-4c36-be01-f10581d37169",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:01:17.960000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:01:17.960000Z",
"file_hash": "6abb5edf7c6d938b95ad81ec0c6301cf2151489ebb2aa81f2b1b68689989e309",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "The short-term stability of passive atomic frequency standards, especially in\npulsed operation, is often limited by local oscillator noise via\nintermodulation effects. We present an experimental demonstration of the\nintermodulation effect on the frequency stability of a continuous atomic\nfountain clock where, under normal operating conditions, it is usually too\nsmall to observe. To achieve this, we deliberately degrade the phase stability\nof the microwave field interrogating the clock transition. We measure the\nfrequency stability of the locked, commercial-grade local oscillator, for two\nmodulation schemes of the microwave field: square-wave phase modulation and\nsquare-wave frequency modulation. We observe a degradation of the stability\nwhose dependence with the modulation frequency reproduces the theoretical\npredictions for the intermodulation effect. In particular no observable\ndegradation occurs when this frequency equals the Ramsey linewidth.\nAdditionally we show that, without added phase noise, the frequency instability\npresently equal to 2x10-13 at 1s, is limited by atomic shot-noise and therefore\ncould be reduced were the atomic flux increased.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0702164",
"authors": [
"Jocelyne Gu\u00e9na",
"Gregor Dudle",
"Pierre Thomann"
],
"categories": [
"physics.atom-ph",
"physics.ins-det"
],
"doi": "10.1051/epjap:2007072",
"journal_ref": "European Physical Journal Applied Physics, 388 (30/05/2007)\n 183-189",
"title": "An experimental study of intermodulation effects in an atomic fountain frequency standard",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0702164"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "0382acf3-fb13-41c2-9cdd-51ff84c43478",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}