Pellaton, Matthieu

2013-11-9, Straessle, Rahel, Pellaton, Matthieu, Affolderbach, Christoph, Pétremand, Yves, Briand, Danick, Mileti, Gaetano, De Rooij, Nicolaas-F.

, Straessle, Rahel, Pellaton, Matthieu, Affolderbach, Christoph, Pétremand, Yves, Briand, Danick, Mileti, Gaetano, de Rooij, Nicolas F.

We present a microfabricated alkali vapor cell equipped with an anti-relaxation wall coating. The anti-relaxation coating used is octadecyltrichlorosilane and the cell was sealed by thin-film indium-bonding at a low temperature of 140 °C. The cell body is made of silicon and Pyrex and features a double-chamber design. Depolarizing properties due to liquid Rb droplets are avoided by confining the Rb droplets to one chamber only. Optical and microwave spectroscopy performed on this wallcoated cell are used to evaluate the cell’s relaxation properties and a potential gas contamination. Double-resonance signals obtained from the cell show an intrinsic linewidth that is significantly lower than the linewidth that would be expected in case the cell had no wall coating but only contained a buffer-gas contamination on the level measured by optical spectroscopy. Combined with further experimental evidence this proves the presence of a working anti-relaxation wall coating in the cell. Such cells are of interest for applications in miniature atomic clocks, magnetometers, and other quantum sensors.

2012-11-9, Pellaton, Matthieu, Affolderbach, Christoph, Pétremand, Yves, De Rooij, Nicolaas-F., Mileti, Gaetano

, Pétremand, Yves, Affolderbach, Christoph, Straessle, Rahel, Pellaton, Matthieu, Briand, Danick, Mileti, Gaetano, de Rooij, Nicolaas F.

This paper presents a new fabrication method to manufacture alkali reference cells having dimensions larger than standard micromachined cells and smaller than glass-blown ones, for use in compact atomic devices such as vapour-cell atomic clocks or magnetometers. The technology is based on anodic bonding of silicon and relatively thick glass wafers and fills a gap in cell sizes and technologies available up to now: on one side, microfabrication technologies with typical dimensions ≤ 2 mm and on the other side, classical glass-blowing technologies for typical dimensions of about 6–10 mm or larger. The fabrication process is described for cells containing atomic Rb and spectroscopic measurements (optical absorption spectrum and double resonance) are reported. The analysis of the bonding strength of our cells was performed and shows that the first anodic bonding steps exhibit higher bonding strengths than the later ones. The spectroscopic results show a good quality of the cells. From the double-resonance signals, we predict a clock stability of ≈3 × 10⁻¹¹ at 1 s of integration time, which compares well to the performance of compact commercial Rb atomic clocks.

2012-11-9, Pétremand, Yves, Affolderbach, Christoph, Straessle, Rahel, Pellaton, Matthieu, Briand, Danick, Mileti, Gaetano, De Rooij, Nicolaas-F.

, Pellaton, Matthieu, Affolderbach, Christoph, Pétremand, Yves, de Rooij, Nicolaas F., Mileti, Gaetano

We present our microwave spectroscopic studies on laser–microwave double-resonance (DR) signals obtained from a micro-fabricated Rb vapor cell. This study focuses on the characteristics and systematic shifts of the ground-state 'clock transition' in ⁸⁷Rb (