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

[Bruce Griffiths]

That just leaves the Rubidium lamp.
An ECDL (external cavity diode laser) locked to the appropriate Rubidium transition is much easier to build. There are several ECDL designs in the literature. Mostly these are Littrow designs. A Cateye resonator design is another option. All the components required are readily availble.
VCSEL's should be avoided as those without polarisation mode stabilisation gratings on the output face randomly mode hop between a pair or orthogonally polarised modes.
A well designed but relatively simple ECDL can have a much narrower line width than a typical DFB laser.  

Bruce
> On 08/06/2023 06:37 NZST djl via time-nuts <time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:
> 
>  
> The Rb capsules are available on ebay, eg:  124012486501
> the classblowing part is done?
> 
> On 2023-06-07 07:50, Richard (Rick) Karlquist via time-nuts wrote:
> > 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
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