General Methods for Suppressing the Light Shift in Atomic Clocks Using Power Modulation

Published

August 3, 2020

Author(s)

V Yudin, M. Y. Basalaev, A. V. Taichenachev, Juniper Pollock, Zachary Newman, Moshe Shuker, Azure L. Hansen, Matthew Hummon, Elizabeth Donley, John Kitching

Abstract

We show that the light shift in atomic clocks can be suppressed using time variation of the interrogation field intensity. By measuring the clock output at two intensity levels, error signals can be generated that simultaneously stabilize a local oscillator to an atomic transition and correct for the shift of this transition caused by the interrogating optical field. These methods are suitable for optical clocks using one- and two-photon transitions, as well as for microwave clocks based on coherent population trapping or direct interrogation. The proposed methods can be widely used both for high-precision scientific instruments and for a wide range of commercial clocks, including chip-scale atomic clocks.

Citation

Physical Review Applied

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.14.024001

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Keywords

Atomic clock, light shift suppression, optical clock

Citation

Yudin, V. , Basalaev, M. , Taichenachev, A. , Pollock, J. , Newman, Z. , Shuker, M. , Hansen, A. , Hummon, M. , Donley, E. and Kitching, J. (2020), General Methods for Suppressing the Light Shift in Atomic Clocks Using Power Modulation, Physical Review Applied, [online], https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.14.024001, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=929920 (Accessed October 14, 2025)