[time-nuts] WTS: Efratom PTB-100 Precision Timebase

Gregory Beat w9gb at icloud.com
Sun Jul 8 16:39:46 UTC 2018


Magnus -
When I scan/read the 1984 IEEE document, “Lifetime and Reliability of Rubidium Discharge Lamps for Use in Atomic Frequency Standards”
by Aerospace Corp., Efraton-Ball, and EG&G.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1537723/
The failure of the rubidium lamps used on early NAVSTAR satellites, was the reason for in-depth studies of the Rb lamp, its lifetime and failure mechanism.

greg
 
>Hi -
>I later tried that method on my R&S XSRM rubidium, with good progress. I
>have reported on that on the list way back. It took two attempts, one
>just to realize that I needed to keep the pinch at the top, because that
>is where the hot atoms go.
>
>Essentially, the thin film of rubidium will consume too much of the
>radiation to emit any useful amount of pumping light. Heating it has the
>rubidium go into gas and then collect somewhere cold, so it's just about
>making sure that somewhere cold isn't the glass where it is to emit light.
>
>My XSRM have however other issues that I need to attend to.
>
>Cheers,
>Magnus




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