Normalised Detection of Clock States by Cold Atom Recapture Method

SummaryA method of detecting normalised clock state populations in an atomic fountain clock using only the initial trapping laser beams has been investigated. The results suggest that, after refining the design of the trapping chamber, the achievable signal-to-noise ratio will be limited by the phase noise of a quartz local oscillator. This provides a way to miniaturise an atomic fountain clock with only a small reduction in performance.