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

[Leo Ahluwalia]

I appreciate all of the help so far, and assuming the procurement of a
rubidium vapour cell and rubidium lamp (and of course all the other
components), I was wondering how exactly the optical pumping setup should
be achieved (to make sure all the components are "hooked up" so to speak),
and whether there was already a standard way of achieving it along with the
installation of the magnetic shielding?

- Leo

On Wed, Jun 7, 2023 at 6:27 PM Bruce Griffiths via time-nuts <
time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:

> 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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