SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Vescent Photonics in collaboration with ColdQuanta proposes to design, build, and deliver a portable atomic clock capable of meeting the Army’s requirements for frequency stability as well as size, weight, and power (SWaP). The proposed Cold Optical Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standard (CORAFS) will provide a precision timing and frequency reference for deployment on mobile platforms, where it is uniquely qualified to synchronize advanced communications networks and enable assured positioning, navigation, and timing in GPS-denied environments. CORAFS improves upon existing cold atom microwave clocks by interrogating the two-photon optical clock transition at 778 nm in a cold sample of rubidium (Rb) atoms to achieve a higher quality factor, and hence better stability, than afforded by probing the conventional microwave clock transition. Hot vapor-cell-based optical clocks based on the two-photon Rb clock transition have previously been demonstrated and validated by the AFRL to have instabilities of
