A Portable Dual-Color Two-Photon Rubidium Optical Frequency Standard
Abstract
Portable atomic clocks are essential in a wide variety of applications, most notably in the operation of global navigation satellite systems. Existing portable atomic clocks utilizing microwave-based interrogation schemes are now routinely eclipsed by the next generation of atomic frequency standards based on optical interrogation. While optical frequency standards demonstrate greatly improved frequency stability, they have only recently reached a level of technical maturity required to demonstrate this improved performance outside of well curated laboratory environments. Here, we demonstrate a fully autonomous and portable optical frequency standard based on an efficient dual-color excitation of the 5S1/2→5D5/2 two-photon transition in 87Rb. The standard utilizes a combination of robust, highly developed commercial-off-the-shelf telecommunications technologies and a fully integrated portable optical frequency comb, providing the optical and microwave outputs vital for interfacing with existing electronic systems and infrastructure. The system demonstrates a fractional frequency stability of 1.9×10−13 at 1s of integration time, reaching 3.5×10−15 at 8000s of integration time without the need for drift removal. This portable demonstrator unit marks a significant achievement in the development of Rb optical atomic frequency standards, and for the deployment of optical atomic frequency standards outside of the laboratory.
Related
- A Portable Optical Frequency Comb with Low Repetition-Rate Drift Based on "Optical Cubes"
- Optical Calibration of a Frequency-Domain-Multiplexed X-Ray TES Microcalorimeter Array via Photon-Number-Resolved Statistics
- Generation of Blue Electro-Optic Frequency Combs via a Four-Wave-Mixing Process in Rubidium Atomic Vapor.
- Spatio-spectral vector light created by optical activity in rubidium vapor
- Rubidium-Referenced Frequency-Doubled Pockels Laser with High-Speed Electro-Optic Tuning
BibTeX
@misc{scholten2026portable,
title = {{A Portable Dual-Color Two-Photon Rubidium Optical Frequency Standard}},
author = {Sarah K. Scholten and Emily Ahern and Clayton Locke and Christopher J. Billington and Nicolas Bourbeau Hébert and Montana Nelligan and Ashby P. Hilton and Rachel F. Offer and Elizaveta Klantsataya and Christopher Perrella and Andre N. Luiten},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.08083},
eprint = {2609.08083},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.08083},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A Portable Dual-Color Two-Photon Rubidium Optical Frequency Standard
AU - Sarah K. Scholten
AU - Emily Ahern
AU - Clayton Locke
AU - Christopher J. Billington
AU - Nicolas Bourbeau Hébert
AU - Montana Nelligan
AU - Ashby P. Hilton
AU - Rachel F. Offer
AU - Elizaveta Klantsataya
AU - Christopher Perrella
AU - Andre N. Luiten
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.08083
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.08083
AB - Portable atomic clocks are essential in a wide variety of applications, most notably in the operation of global navigation satellite systems. Existing portable atomic clocks utilizing microwave-based interrogation schemes are now routinely eclipsed by the next generation of atomic frequency standards based on optical interrogation. While optical frequency standards demonstrate greatly improved frequency stability, they have only recently reached a level of technical maturity required to demonstrate this improved performance outside of well curated laboratory environments. Here, we demonstrate a fully autonomous and portable optical frequency standard based on an efficient dual-color excitation of the 5S_1/2→5D_5/2 two-photon transition in ^87Rb. The standard utilizes a combination of robust, highly developed commercial-off-the-shelf telecommunications technologies and a fully integrated portable optical frequency comb, providing the optical and microwave outputs vital for interfacing with existing electronic systems and infrastructure. The system demonstrates a fractional frequency stability of 1.9×10^−13 at 1s of integration time, reaching 3.5×10^−15 at 8000s of integration time without the need for drift removal. This portable demonstrator unit marks a significant achievement in the development of Rb optical atomic frequency standards, and for the deployment of optical atomic frequency standards outside of the laboratory.
ER -