A vapor cell provides a well-controlled and stable inner atmosphere for atomic sensors, such as atomic gyroscopes, atomic magnetometers, and atomic clocks, and its hermeticity affects the stability and aging of atomic sensors. We present the micro-fabrication of a micro-electromechanical system wafer-level hermit vapor cell based on deep reactive ion etching and vacuum anodic-bonding technology. The anodic-bonding process with the voltage increasing in steps of 200 V had a critical influence on vapor cell hermeticity. Further, the silicon–glass bonding surface was experimentally investigated by a scanning electron microscope, which illustrated that there were no visual cracks and defects in the bonding surface. The leak rate was measured using a helium leak detector. The result shows that the vapor cells with different optical cavity lengths comply with the MIL-STD-883E standard (5 × 10 ⁸ mbar·L/s). Moreover, D2 absorption spectroscopy was characterized via optical absorption. The bonding strength was determined to be 13 MPa, which further verified the quality of the vapor cells.

A high-performance transportable fountain clock is attractive for use in laboratories with high-precision time-frequency measurement requirements. This Letter reports the improvement of the stability of a transportable rubidium-87 fountain clock because of an optimization of temperature characteristics. This clock integrates its physical packaging, optical benches, microwave frequency synthesizers, and electronic controls onto an easily movable wheeled plate. Two optical benches with a high-vibration resistance are realized in this work. No additional adjustment is required after moving them several times. The Allan deviation of the fountain clock frequency was measured by comparing it with that of the hydrogen maser. The fountain clock got a short-term stability of 2.3×10 13 at 1 s and long-term stability on the order of 10 ¹⁶ at 100,000 s.

For most atom interferometers, the vibration isolation unit is applied to reduce vibration noise. In our experiment, instead of isolation, the vibration signals are monitored, and combining with the sensitive function, the compensation phase shift for the atom interferometer is obtained. We focus on the correction over a wide spectrum rather than on “monochromatic” frequencies. The sensitivity of the atom gravimeter can be upgraded by a factor of more than two. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the atom interferometer can still produce a good measurement result without passive vibration isolation in extremely noisy environments by using vibration compensation.

Atomic Doppler broadening thermometry (DBT) is potentially an accurate and practical approach for thermodynamic temperature measurement. However, previous reported atomic DBT had a long acquisition time and had only been proved at the triple point of water, 0°C, for the purpose of determination of the Boltzmann constant. This research implemented the cesium atomic DBT for fast room temperature measurement. The Cs¹³³ D1 (6S^1/2 → 6p^1/2 transition) line was measured by direct laser absorption spectroscopy, and the quantity of thermal-induced linewidth broadening was precisely retrieved by the Voigt profile fitting algorithm. The preliminary results showed the proposed approach had a 4 min single-scan acquisition time and 0.2% reproducibility. It is expected that the atomic DBT could be used as an accurate, chip-scale, and calibration-free temperature sensor and standard.

As the key part of chip-scale atomic clocks (CSACs), the vapor cell directly determines the volume, stability, and power consumption of the CSAC. The reduction of the power consumption and CSAC volumes demands the manufacture of corresponding vapor cells. This overview presents the research development of vapor cells of the past few years and analyzes the shortages of the current preparation technology. By comparing several different vapor cell preparation methods, we successfully realized the micro-fabrication of vapor cells using anodic bonding and deep silicon etching. This cell fabrication method is simple and effective in avoiding weak bonding strengths caused by alkali metal volatilization during anodic bonding under high temperatures. Finally, the vapor cell D2 line was characterized via optical-absorption resonance. According to the results, the proposed method is suitable for CSAC.

We study a Zeeman slower using the magnetic field generated by a pair of coils for a magneto-optical trap. The efficiency of the Zeeman slower is shown to be dependent on the intensity and frequency detuning of the laser light for slowing the atoms. With the help of numerical analysis, optimal experimental parameters are explored. Experimentally, the optimal frequency detuning and intensity of the slowing beam are explored, and 4 × 10⁷ ytterbium atoms are trapped in the magneto-optical trap.

We report on an experimental investigation on the dynamic decoherence process of molecular rotational wavepackets during femtosecond laser filamentation based on time-dependent mean wavelength shifts of a weak probe pulse. Details of periodic revival structures of transient alignment can be readily obtained from the measured shifted spectra due to the periodic modulation of the molecular refractive index. Using the method, we measured decoherence lifetimes of molecular rotational wavepackets in N2 and O2 under different experimental conditions. Our results indicate that decoherence lifetimes of molecular rotational wavepackets are primarily determined by the relative population of rotational states in the wave packet and intermolecular collisions, rather than the focusing intensity.

A simple and robust technique is reported to offset lock a single semiconductor laser to the atom resonance line with a frequency difference easily adjustable from a few tens of megahertz up to tens of gigahertz. The proposed scheme makes use of the frequency modulation spectroscopy by modulating sidebands of a fiber electro-optic modulator output. The short-term performances of a frequency offset locked semiconductor laser are experimentally demonstrated with the Allan variance of around 3.9×10 11 at a 2 s integration time. This method may have many applications, such as in Raman optics for an atom interferometer.

We report a novel nonresonant magneto-optical effect in cold atoms and present the optimized parameters of the biased magnetic field, the incident probe light intensity, and the probe detuning to obtain the maximal signal of the magneto-optical rotation. This detection scheme may further improve the stability of the cold atom clock.

We experimentally and theoretically demonstrate that the property (odd or even) of generated harmonics can be selected by manipulating the macroscopic phase-matching conditions based on a three-color laser field. Only odd or even harmonics can be made dominant by changing the focal position and adjusting the gas pressure. These results indicate that the odd-even property of the generated harmonics can be controlled by using the multi-color laser field with macroscopic phase-matching.