Optimizing a high-stability cw laser-pumped Rubidium gas-cell frequency standard

We report on our development of a compact and high-performance laser-pumped Rubidium atomic frequency standard. The clock design is based on optical-microwave double-resonance using cw optical pumping, and a physical realization as simple as possible. Main development goals are a short-term instability of ≤ 6 × 10-13 τ-1/2 and a flicker floor of ≤ 1 × 10-14 up to one day. Here we discuss our approaches for controlling the clock's main physical parameters in view of optimized frequency stability.