Cold-Atom Timekeeper (CAT)

The Navy is seeking to implement an innovative data-routing architecture employing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) nodes. Such a system will place challenging demands on the size, weight, and power (SWAP) and robustness of the required timekeeping technology. Chip-scale atomic clocks (CSACs) have leveraged similar demand for good clock performance in a compact package. However, there is a substantial performance gap between CSACs and currently demonstrated laboratory systems. ColdQuanta, in partnership with Vescent Photonics, seeks to fill this gap by combining recent advances in compact cold atom clocks developed at NIST with ColdQuantas robust ultraminiature vacuum cell technology and Vescents frequency stable laser diode technology. Our objective is to develop a high-performance, low SWaP atomic clock. The proposed system utilizes laser light to cool atomic samples using a magneto-optic trap (MOT). During a measurement cycle, atoms are released and allowed to evolve freely. After the evolution period the cold atoms are probed using Ramsey interrogation with coherent population trapping (CPT). The clock signal is obtained by stabilizing the CPT light to the Ramsey signal. The goal is to demonstrate a Technology Readiness Level of 5 with our proposed clock, the Cold-Atom Timekeeper, or CAT, by the end of Phase II.