title: Compact microwave cavity for high performance rubidium frequency standards.
abstract: The design, realization, and characterization of a compact magnetron-type microwave cavity operating with a TE(011)-like mode are presented. The resonator works at the rubidium hyperfine ground-state frequency (i.e., 6.835 GHz) by accommodating a glass cell of 25 mm diameter containing rubidium vapor. Its design analysis demonstrates the limitation of the loop-gap resonator lumped model when targeting such a large cell, thus numerical optimization was done to obtain the required performances. Microwave characterization of the realized prototype confirmed the expected working behavior. Double-resonance and Zeeman spectroscopy performed with this cavity indicated an excellent microwave magnetic field homogeneity: the performance validation of the cavity was done by achieving an excellent short-term clock stability as low as 2.4 × 10(-13) τ(-1/2). The achieved experimental results and the compact design make this resonator suitable for applications in portable atomic high-performance frequency standards for both terrestrial and space applications.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Électromagnétisme et d'Acoustique, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Camillo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stefanucci
authors.forename: Thejesh
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bandi
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Merli
authors.forename: Matthieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pellaton
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Affolderbach
authors.forename: Gaetano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mileti
authors.forename: Anja K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Skrivervik