Stability limitations from optical detection in Ramsey-type vapour-cell atomic clocks

In today’s state of the art compact vapour-cell atomic clocks relying on the pulsed Ramsey-type interrogation, optical detection noise is a major limitation to the achievable short-term stability. In this communication, the influence of the optical detection time on the clock’s short-term stability is investigated and a new analytical expression is developed to precisely predict the stability performance, taking into account the details of the optical detection phase of a Ramsey-type atomic clock. The theory is in good agreement with the experimental results. It is applied for evaluating the clock’s shot-noise limit.