A Caesium Beam Atomic Clock with Laser Optical Pumping, as a Potential Frequency Standard

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Abstract
A passive microwave caesium beam resonator using optical pumping and optical detection, with a C.W. tunable GaAs diode laser, has been realized. The "0-0 clock transition" is detected through a change in the intensity of the fluorescence of the caesium beam. Experimental recordings of the Ramsey pattern agree with a Maxwellian distribution of atomic velocities. Results of preliminary tests, to an accuracy of a few parts in 1011, show good potentialities for a frequency standard of higher accuracy.