Progress Towards a Miniaturized Mercury Ion Clock for Space Application

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China Satellite Navigation Conference (CSNC) 2020 Proceedings: Volume II (CSNC 2020)

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Abstract

A compact mercury ion microwave clock prototype using sealed vacuum system has been developed in Wuhan institute of Physics and Mathematics (WIPM) since 2018. In this letter, we report the recent progress on this small prototype. After one year’s sealed-off, the ion trap** time in sealed vacuum tube is measured to ~73 h. It is much longer than the trap** time in previous turbo pumped vacuum system. By optimizing the time sequence of the clock operation and bias magnetic field intensity, the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the clock transition is significantly enhanced. A short-term frequency stability of 4.5 × 10−131/2 (τ = 4–104 s) has been achieved.

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References

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Acknowledgements

This works was carried out in Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences under the support of China Satellite Navigation System Management Office.

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Correspondence to Lei She .

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Liu, H., Chen, Y., Yan, B., Liu, G., She, L. (2020). Progress Towards a Miniaturized Mercury Ion Clock for Space Application. In: Sun, J., Yang, C., **e, J. (eds) China Satellite Navigation Conference (CSNC) 2020 Proceedings: Volume II. CSNC 2020. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 651. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3711-0_49

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3711-0_49

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