[time-nuts] Re: Creating a D.I.Y Rubidium Atomic Clock

[Richard (Rick) Karlquist]

On 6/7/2023 5:03 AM, Stephen C. Menasian via time-nuts wrote:

> 1) some pure Rb87
> 2) a glass blowing setup (and some skill)
> 3) A selection of inert gasses (at least including Ar)
> 4) Light source (Rb discharge was used then with a circular polarizer;


At HP we had really skilled glass blowers, with specific experience in
making Rb glassware.  We had to use an exotic grade of glass that was 
only one step removed from fused quartz.  It had a part number that I 
don't remember.  Very difficult to work with.

The Rb lamp (one of three pieces of glassware) is very tricky to work
with.  We used a resonant coil driven at 95 MHz at several watts.
The trick is to "strike" the plasma and make the lamp light up;
you can at least see visible light when that happens. I spent a
lot of time fooling with it.  We never got it to work as
well as the 5065 lamp.

BTW, one of the Rb isotopes is slightly radioactive.  Might be
hard to get as a hobbyist due to regulations.  The physicist I
sat next to had a tank of it illegally stored in his cubicle.

Rick
N6RK