[time-nuts] Thinking outside the box a super reference

[Bruce Griffiths]

On Friday, November 04, 2016 09:27:59 PM Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> --------
> In message <2af27ebe-9200-c348-c89b-b98f9c973974 at karlquist.com>, 
"Richard
> (Rick) Karlquist" w
> rites:
> >Also, one of the Rb isotopes is slightly radioactive.
> >35 years ago, the guy in the next cubicle got away with
> >storing it under his desk.  He also happily smoked
> >cigarettes all day at his desk.  Another ERA.
> 
> Rb87 has a halflife north of the age of the planet as far
> as I recall, and the result is a beta which goes nowhere
> far and Sr87 which is stable.
> 
> He got a lot more ionizing radiation from his cigaretess than he
> ever got from the Rb87.
> 
> Just for the heck of it, I'd go laser instead of the old UHF lamp.
> 
> With respect to precision machining, that space has changed a lot
> over the last five years, with precision CNC machines, factory
> or home-built, dropping dramatically in price.
Yes, the laser technique is doable even if one has to build an ECDL.
What would be nice would be a scheme that allows the same Rb filled bulb 
to be used to both lock the laser to the right wavelength and to detect 
that the microwave signal is also locked to the Rb microwave transition.

Bruce