Ashby Hilton | Searcharxiv

arXiv2024

The SWaP plot: Visualising the performance of portable atomic clocks as a function of their size, weight and power

Precision timekeeping is fundamental to modern technologies such as Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), communication networks, financial transactions, and power grid management. Over the past 50 years, microwave atomic clocks have been the standard for timing precision. The new generation of optical atomic clocks have demonstrated orders of magnitude better performance, and are now transitioning from research to practical applications. We provide a web resource that tracks the performance of these optical atomic clocks, measured in terms of their Allan deviation at various integration times, against their SWaP requirements via an interactive plot. The most current data and additional resources are available online, providing a continuously updated reference for those interested in precision timing. Updated August 2026.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2016

Drift-compensated Low-noise Frequency Synthesis Based on a cryoCSO for the KRISS-F1

In this paper we report on the implementation and stability analysis of a drift-compensated frequency synthesizer from a cryogenic sapphire oscillator (CSO) designed for a Cs/Rb atomic fountain clock. The synthesizer has two microwave outputs of 7 GHz and 9 GHz for Rb and Cs atom interrogation, respectively. The short-term stability of these microwave signals, measured using an optical frequency comb locked to an ultra-stable laser, is better than $5\times10^{-15}$ at an averaging time of 1 s. We demonstrate that the short-term stability of the synthesizer is lower than the quantum projection noise limit of the Cs fountain clock, KRISS-F1(Cs) by measuring the short-term stability of the fountain with varying trapped atom number. The stability of the fountain at 1-s averaging time reaches $2.5\times10^{-14}$ at the highest atom number in the experiment when the synthesizer is used as an interrogation oscillator of the fountain. In order to compensate the frequency drift of the CSO, the output frequency of a waveform generator in the synthesis chain is ramped linearly. By doing this, the stability of the synthesizer at an average time of one hour reaches a level of $10^{-16}$ which is measured with the fountain clock.

physics.ins-det↗