62 results about "Atomic vapor" patented technology

The invention relates to a system and method for improving the transient bandwidth of a Rydberg atomic microwave sensor, and the system comprises two lasers which are respectively used for generating detection light and coupling light; the detection light and the coupling light pass through a half-wave plate and are reflected by a polarization splitting prism to obtain first vertical polarized light, and the light transmitted through the polarization splitting prism sequentially passes through a reflector and a half-wave plate to be adjusted into second vertical polarized light; the two paths of detection light and coupling light are respectively propagated in the two rubidium atom steam pools in an opposite and coincident manner; the detection light passing through the reference rubidium atom steam pool and the polarization splitting prism and the detection light passing through the rubidium atom steam pool filled with the buffer gas and the semi-transparent and semi-reflective mirror are received by the photoelectric detector; signal microwaves and local microwaves are radiated to the two rubidium atom steam pools through the power divider and the microwave horn antenna respectively, and after a microwave electric field is applied, the intensity of beat frequency signals generated by interference of the signal microwaves and the local microwaves is measured through the change of the light intensity of detection light near EIT resonance.

The invention provides an electric field measuring device for continuously tunable microwave frequency based on Rydberg atoms. The electric field measuring device comprises a reflecting mirror, an atom steam pool, a first electrode plate, a second electrode plate, a dichroscope, a photoelectric detector and a data receiving module, the detection laser passing through the reflector and the coupling laser passing through the dichroscope oppositely hit into the atom steam pool to coincide, and a transmitted optical signal enters the photoelectric detector after hit into the atom steam pool; the photoelectric detector is electrically connected with the data receiving module; the first electrode plate and the second electrode plate are externally arranged above and below the atomic steam pool respectively; the first electrode plate and the second electrode plate are used for applying an alternating current electric field acting on the atomic steam pool, and different AC Stark frequency shifts are generated by controlling the electric field intensity of the alternating current electric field, so that high-sensitivity measurement of the continuous tunable microwave frequency electric field is realized. According to the invention, high-sensitivity measurement of the continuous tunable microwave frequency electric field can be realized, and the accuracy of a measurement result is ensured.

A multimodal fusion detection apparatus and method based on optical pumping and photoacoustic imaging are provided, relating to the field of fusion detection technology. In the apparatus, the atomic vapor cell detection path and the first laser irradiation path are both directed toward a target region and at least partially overlap. In this way, the detection paths of optical pumping and photoacoustic imaging are at least partially coincident, ensuring that electrophysiological signals and blood oxygen signals originate from the same tissue region and avoiding the spacing constraints of conventional sensors. Thus, the detection path of the atomic vapor cell can be used for both magnetic field detection and photoacoustic detection, enabling simultaneous acquisition of magnetic and photoacoustic signals at a single detection point, achieving hardware reuse for multimodal fusion detection at the same location and time, reducing device size, and minimizing crosstalk among multimodal sensors.

An atomic vapor cell includes a bottom transparent substrate having a floor surface, a top transparent substrate having a ceiling surface, a frame, a bottom protective layer, a top protective layer, and an alkaline earth metal between the bottom and the top transparent substrates. The frame has a bottom surface bonded to the floor surface, a top surface opposite the bottom surface and bonded to the ceiling surface, a reservoir hole, an aperture, and a channel that connects the reservoir hole to the aperture. The top protective layer is on the ceiling surface and includes layer-regions that cover respective regions of the ceiling surface spanning across the reservoir hole and the aperture. The bottom protective layer is on the floor surface and includes a layer-region that covers a region of the floor surface that spans across the aperture. The alkaline earth metal is in the reservoir hole.

A system for automatically locking a control laser in a Rydberg atomic sensor may comprise an atomic vapor cell, a probe laser configured to excite the atoms in the atomic vapor cell to an intermediate energy state, and a control laser configured to excite the one or more atoms in the atomic vapor cell from the intermediate energy state to a higher energy state. The light generated by the control laser may be dithered at a pre-determined frequency. The system further comprises a photodiode configured to convert light received from the vapor cell into an electrical signal, a lock-in amplifier configured to generate an error signal based on the electrical signal received from the photo diode and a received reference oscillation frequency, and a servo configured to receive the generated error signal from the lock-in amplifier and adjust a frequency of the control laser based on the received error signal.

An electric field sensor may include an atomic vapor cell and a plurality of lasers configured to excite atoms in the vapor cell from a low-energy state to a high-energy state. The sensor may be configured to split signals from the plurality of lasers into multiple polarized signals. The polarized signals may be transmitted through the atomic vapor cell. A subset of the polarized signals may be received by photodetectors after the subset exits the vapor cell. Based on signals from the photodetectors, the electric field sensor may determine an angle of arrival and polarization information about an electric field that is incident upon the atomic vapor cell.

Various embodiments include a thermally packaged atomic device. The thermally packaged atomic device includes an atomic vapor unit, a heater, and a housing. The atomic vapor unit is located within the housing. The heater heats the atomic vapor unit. The housing is filled with a gas selected to have a thermal conductivity less than that of air. The gas having a thermal conductivity less than that of air may include xenon or krypton. The enclosure surrounds the atomic vapor unit with a gas.

A method includes emitting scanned reference laser light from a first tunable laser into a first atomic vapor filter to output filtered scanned reference laser light and receiving the filtered reference laser light with a first detector. The method includes emitting scanned outgoing signal laser light from a second tunable laser into an atmospheric space, receiving a return of the scanned signal laser light from Doppler shifted scattering from the atmospheric space into a second atomic vapor filter to output Doppler shifted filtered scanned signal laser light, and receiving the Doppler shifted filtered scanned signal laser laser light with a second detector. Each tunable laser wavelength scan is controlled independently using information from the wavelength scan received at the associated detector to maintain the center of the wavelength scan received at the detector as the bottom of an atomic absorption well. Velocity is determined using the Doppler shift of the light collected from atmospheric space as measured by the wavelength difference between the center wavelength of the scanned reference laser and the center wavelength of the scanned outgoing signal laser light which is transmitted into the atmosphere.

Optical frequency reference apparatus (10) comprising - an atomic vapor cell (1), containing a vapor of reference atoms, said atomic vapor cell (1) comprising a first end (41) having a first window (4) and a second end (61), - a laser source (11) for generating a laser probe beam (3) adapted to excite a two-photon optical transition of said reference atoms, - an optical detector (14), adapted to detect a fluorescence signal emitted by said reference atoms, and - at least one reflective element (5, 15) wherein the laser source (11), the atomic vapor cell (1) and the at least one reflective element (5, 15) are configured such that, in operation, the probe beam (3) enters the atomic vapor cell (1) through said first window (4) at said first end (41) and crosses said vapor of reference atoms until said second end (61) through a defined optical path in a first forward direction (3a), the probe beam (3) is reflected backwards by said at least one reflective element (5, 15) and crosses said vapor of reference atoms a second time through the same defined optical path, in a second direction (3b) opposite to the first forward direction (3a), characterized in that the optical frequency reference apparatus (10) further comprises means (7, 9) for absorbing the reflected laser probe beam (3) exiting from the atomic vapor cell (1) according to the second direction (3b).

A degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) squeezed light apparatus includes one or more pump beams, a probe beam, a vapor cell, a repump beam, and a detector. The one or more pump beams includes an input power of no greater than about 150 mW. The vapor cell includes an atomic vapor configured to interact with overlapped pump and probe beams to generate an amplified probe beam and a conjugate beam. The repump beam is configured to optically pump the atomic vapor to a ground state and decrease atomic decoherence of the atomic vapor. The detector is configured to measure squeezing due to quantum correlations between the amplified probe beam and the conjugate beam. The one or more pump beams, the probe beam, and the repump beam are configured to generate two-mode squeezed light by DFWM with squeezing of at least 3 dB below shot noise.

The invention discloses an atomic gravimeter based on a grating chip, and the atomic gravimeter comprises a vacuum cavity which releases atom steam into the vacuum cavity through an atom source, and the inner side or outer side of the upper part of the vacuum cavity is provided with the grating chip; the first coil assembly provides a gradient magnetic field for the vacuum cavity, diffraction light of the grating chip and incident light of the first incident light assembly form an intersection area in the vacuum cavity, and an atom capture area is formed in the area; the second incident light assembly and the second coil assembly are coaxially arranged, the axis of the second incident light assembly and the axis of the second coil assembly penetrate through the atom capture area, and the second coil assembly provides a uniform magnetic field into the vacuum cavity; the photoelectric detection assembly is arranged at the lower part of the vacuum cavity and is used for detecting an atomic fluorescence signal; the microwave antenna is disposed on the vacuum chamber, and the emission direction faces the interior of the vacuum chamber. According to the invention, based on the grating chip, the gravity measurement can be realized by using fewer laser beams, the structure of the gravimeter is simplified, the size of the atomic gravimeter is reduced, and the robustness and practicability of the system are enhanced.

Embodiments herein describe using compressed source material to perform an atomic experiment or an atomic application within a vacuum chamber (e.g., an atom cooling and trapping apparatus). Source material is often refined and sold with dendritic or crystalline surfaces that result in a very large surface area. This surface area increases the likelihood that a large amount contaminants will form on the surface, which is especially true for reactive source materials. To mitigate the risk of contamination, in the embodiments herein the source material is compressed onto a substrate. This changes the material from having a dendritic or crystalline surface to a flat surface, which has a much smaller surface area and thus is less susceptible to contaminants which can, for example, improve the lifetime usage of the source material.

Disclosed herein is a method of generating and trapping laser cooled metal atoms in a magneto-optical trap, the method comprising (a) providing an apparatus comprising a vacuum chamber, a magneto-optical trap arranged to be generated within the vacuum chamber, and an ablation laser, (b) placing an elemental metal sample within the vacuum chamber and then generating a vacuum within the vacuum chamber, (c) irradiating the elemental metal sample with the ablation laser to generate an atomic vapour formed of elemental metal atoms from the elemental metal sample, and (d) trapping a plurality of the elemental metal atoms in the magneto-optical trap. Also disclosed herein is an apparatus for capturing cold elemental metal atoms, the apparatus comprising a vacuum chamber, an apparatus that generates a magneto-optical trap within the vacuum chamber, an ablation laser, and an elemental metal sample holder, wherein the elemental metal sample holder is situated within the vacuum chamber at a location that does not require the ablation laser to pass through the magneto-optical trap.

The low-noise atom modulation spectrum detection system comprises a signal generator, sine wave signals generated by the signal generator are divided into two paths, one path is output to a laser device, and laser with modulation information is modulated in a current control mode; and the other path provides a reference signal for demodulation of the lock-in amplifier, the output laser is divided into pump light and probe light to ensure generation of saturated fluorescence in the rubidium atom steam chamber, then a low-noise silicon photoelectric detector is used for detecting a saturated fluorescence signal, and the lock-in amplifier demodulates and outputs the modulated saturated fluorescence signal. And meanwhile, a detection path of the saturated absorption spectrum is reserved, so that comparison with a modulated saturated fluorescence spectrum signal is facilitated. According to the invention, the requirement on the size of the atom steam chamber is obviously reduced, and the method is suitable for the application scenes of the Suppler spectrum, such as high-sensitivity, low-noise, anti-interference and miniaturized laser frequency stabilization and atom hyperfine structure detection.

A system (30) for controlling, regulating or authenticating a timer comprises means (31) for measuring the frequency signal and / or rate of one or more timers based on a time reference provided by an optical atomic clock (10) comprising an atomic vapor chamber (1), the atomic vapor chamber (1) comprises a hermetically sealed enclosure (8) defining a volume containing a vapor of a reference atom (2), the hermetically sealed enclosure (8) comprising an optical inlet (3) allowing transmission of a probe beam adapted to excite an optical transition of the reference atom (2) and an optical outlet (4) allowing transmission of a fluorescence signal from the reference atom (2), the hermetically sealed housing (8) further comprises a wall (5) through which the fluorescent signal can penetrate, said wall (5) being coated on its outer side with a coating (6) which is reflective to the fluorescent signal.

A method for atom-based closed-loop control includes exciting atoms of a gas into one or more Rydberg states, applying one or more signal processing functions to the one or more Rydberg states, and regulating a characteristic of the applied one or more signal processing functions based on, at least in part, a response of the one or more Rydberg states to the one or more signal processing functions. A system for internal quantum-state-space interferometry includes an atomic receiver, an interferometric pathway, and a detector. The interferometer includes an atomic vapor with first atomic states and second atomic states. The interferometric pathway from RF phases between the first and second atomic states is closed by a quantum-state-space. The detector is configured to detect a readout of an interferometric signal. Embodiments include atom-based automatic level control, baseband processors, phase-locked loops, voltage transducers, raster RF imagers and waveform analyzers.

Techniques are provided self-aligning components of an atomic sensor including a first cover, a second cover, a structure-cell including a structure and a cell, containing a vapor of atoms, in the structure. Atomic sensor components are aligned in a cover in which they are form fitted into a recess or mounted on a surface of a pedestal. Each cover is aligned with the structure-cell or component(s) therein using guide holes in each of the cover and the structure-cell into each of which an alignment pin is inserted. Due to such alignments, each component is self-aligned with respect another component or to a region of the structure-cell, e.g., the cell or an atomic vapor in the cell.

The present invention provides an optical atomic clock system comprising: an optical pulse generation component adapted to generate a clock interrogation optical pulse; the atomic furnace is used for generating atomic steam; each subsystem is suitable for capturing and preliminarily cooling atoms in the received atom steam to obtain a cold atomic group, and is used for trapping the atoms in the cold atomic group; the subsystem is constructed to allow clock polling pulse light to enter, so that atoms in a ground state interfere with each other under the action of two clock polling light pulses; the processing component is used for obtaining an error signal of the subsystem according to the interference result in any subsystem; a timing controller configured to: cause atoms within the at least one subsystem to be in an illumination phase of the clock interrogation light pulse or in a free evolutionary phase between two illumination of the clock interrogation light pulse; the frequency of the clock interrogation light pulse is corrected according to the respective error signals of the plurality of subsystems.

The utility model discloses an absolute frequency calibration system for a tunable laser. The absolute frequency calibration system comprises an atomic vapor saturated absorption spectrum measurement module, a signal acquisition module and a data analysis module, the atomic vapor saturated absorption spectrum measurement module receives laser output by the target tunable laser for atomic vapor saturated absorption spectrum measurement and outputs a signal; the signal acquisition module acquires an output signal of the atom vapor saturated absorption spectrum measurement module and transmits the output signal to the data analysis module, the data analysis module analyzes the output signal to obtain an atom saturated absorption wavelength, and then the atom saturated absorption wavelength is processed to obtain a frequency signal of the target tunable laser. According to the absolute frequency calibration system for the tunable laser, the atomic vapor saturated absorption spectrum of the laser output by the tunable laser is measured through the atomic vapor saturated absorption spectrum measurement module for absolute frequency calibration, the frequency precision is high, and the system structure is simple.

The present disclosure provides a magnetometer for measuring a magnetic field B in the vicinity thereof. The magnetometer includes a vapor cell comprising atomic vapor; an optical processor for receiving a light beam and directing said light beam, as a probe light beam, to enter the vapor cell with a certain predetermined intensity I1 and a certain predetermined polarization state P1 to serve for interacting with at least one type of Alkali-like atoms in the atomic vapor of the vapor cell, for probing a Larmor frequency of precession thereof; and a detector for detecting the light beam after interaction with the atomic vapor to generate signals / data indicative of said Larmor frequency. The optical processor includes an optical depolarizer and a polarizer arranged respectively successively (e.g., not necessarily consecutively) with respect to a propagation direction of said light beam, along a propagation path of the light beam through the optical processor.

The application relates to the technical field of cold atoms, in particular to a heating device for generating an atomic vapor flow. The device comprises a first furnace body and a second furnace body, the inner cavity of the first furnace body is communicated with the inner cavity of the second furnace body through a communication port, the second furnace body is provided with a gas outlet communicated with the inner cavity of the second furnace body, the outer wall of the first furnace body is provided with a heat source layer for heating the first furnace body, the second furnace body at least comprises a first temperature drop section and a second temperature drop section arranged in sequence along the direction from the communication port to the gas outlet, the thermal resistance value of the first temperature drop section and the thermal resistance value of the second temperature drop section make the temperature of the second furnace body connected with the first furnace body change according to a preset temperature drop curve, the abscissa of the temperature drop curve is the axial distance of the second furnace body, and the ordinate is the temperature value. The heating device is designed by segmenting the thermal resistance value of the second furnace body, so that the second furnace body can realize temperature drop according to the preset temperature drop curve, stable temperature control can be realized by only one heat source, and the structure and control are relatively simple.

Systems and methods for generating an entangled pair of bichromatic photons are described. The system includes an atomic vapor cell containing atoms of an atomic species located within beam paths of a first and second laser beam. The first and second laser beams are tuned to first and second wavelengths that are resonant with first and second atomic transitions of the atomic species such that the first and second laser beams cause a four-wave mixing process within the atomic vapor cell. As a result of the four-wave mixing process, entangled photon pairs having a third and fourth wavelength are generated and output from the atomic vapor cell. The first and second wavelengths may be selected to create electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) within the atomic vapor cell, the EIT creating a transparent medium within the atomic vapor cell at the third wavelength, improving spectral brightness and / or photon linewidths.

A method for atom-based closed-loop control includes exciting atoms of a gas into one or more Rydberg states, applying one or more signal processing functions to the one or more Rydberg states, and regulating a characteristic of the applied one or more signal processing functions based on, at least in part, a response of the one or more Rydberg states to the one or more signal processing functions. A system for internal quantum-state-space interferometry includes an atomic receiver, an interferometric pathway, and a detector. The interferometer includes an atomic vapor with first atomic states and second atomic states. The interferometric pathway from RF phases between the first and second atomic states is closed by a quantum-state-space. The detector is configured to detect a readout of an interferometric signal. Embodiments include atom-based automatic level control, baseband processors, phase-locked loops, voltage transducers, raster RF imagers and waveform analyzers.

Provided is an atomic vapor cell, for atomic or molecular spectroscopy, optical pumping, and / or spin-based atomic sensing, that includes a host substrate and defined there within a buried or non-buried chamber laser written in the host substrate without the need of a mask or photoresist, with either planar or three-dimensional geometry, and intended to contain an atomic vapor.Also provided are an integrated atomic / photonic device and an apparatus, in both cases including the presently disclosed atomic vapor cell, and a method for fabricating the presently disclosed atomic vapor cell.

An optical pumping-based multimodal fusion detection apparatus is provided, relating to the field of brain-computer interfaces. The system includes a laser generation module, laser path control module, atomic vapor cell, photodetection module, ultrasonic detection module, and data processing module. The photodetection module, ultrasonic detection module, and data processing module function as a detection module. The detection module collects the laser intensity and polarization variation signals of the first laser after passing through the atomic vapor cell to output local magnetic field variations in the brain caused by neural discharges. It also collects ultrasonic signals corresponding to an interaction of the second pulsed laser with the measured part to output the subject's blood oxygen signal.

A communication method and a related device are applied to the field of communication. In the method, a first device receives a first microwave signal to be detected; the first device sends a first laser signal to a first atomic steam cavity to obtain first signal intensity, the first signal intensity is the signal intensity of the first laser signal penetrating through the first atomic steam cavity, the frequency of the first laser signal changes periodically, and the transmissivity of the first atomic steam cavity is related to the first microwave signal; the first device determines a first attribute of the first microwave signal according to the first signal intensity and the frequency of the first laser signal, and the first attribute comprises the signal intensity or the signal frequency so as to increase the signal bandwidth of microwave signal detection.

An electric field sensor may include an atomic vapor cell and a plurality of lasers configured to excite atoms in the vapor cell from a low-energy state to a high-energy state. The sensor may be configured to split signals from the plurality of lasers into multiple polarized signals. The polarized signals may be transmitted through the atomic vapor cell. A subset of the polarized signals may be received by photodetectors after the subset exits the vapor cell. Based on signals from the photodetectors, the electric field sensor may determine an angle of arrival and polarization information about an electric field that is incident upon the atomic vapor cell.

To improve EM sensing, detection, measurement, imaging, reception, communication, and source generation by extending capabilities beyond those achievable with conventional sensor technologies and using atom-based quantum sensor technologies.SOLUTION: A method for atom-based closed-loop control includes exciting atoms of a gas into one or more Rydberg states, applying one or more signal processing functions to the one or more Rydberg states, and adjusting characteristics of the applied one or more signal processing functions based at least in part on a response of the one or more Rydberg states to the one or more signal processing functions. A system for internal quantum state space interferometry includes an atomic receiver, an interference path, and a detector. The interferometer includes an atomic vapor having a first atomic state and a second atomic state. The interference path from an RF phase between the first and second atomic states is closed by a quantum state space. The detector is configured to detect a readout of an interference signal.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

The invention discloses an alkali metal atom gas chamber based on Rydberg electric field measurement and an electric field measurement device. The problem of electric field shielding during electric field measurement is solved. According to the invention, the square glass with high purity and low conductivity is selected as the air chamber main body, so that the air chamber main body has good optical transparency and chemical stability. By selecting metal with high conductivity and low resistivity, effective transmission of inductive charge signals is ensured. Glass and metal are subjected to laser welding, so that no air leakage is ensured. The atom gas chamber is firstly vacuumized, then alkali metal atoms are injected, and stable atom steam is formed. The Rydberg atomic glass gas chamber is simple in structure, interference of an external stray electric field is reduced, measurement stability is improved, the shielding effect of a traditional Rydberg atomic glass gas chamber in low-frequency electric field measurement is effectively overcome through a unique metal-glass composite structure, and sensitivity and accuracy of electric field measurement are improved.

The invention discloses a PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) material atomic vapor pool for low-frequency electric field measurement and a manufacturing method thereof, the atomic vapor pool comprises a pool body made of PMMA material and a convex opening hermetically arranged on the pool body, the convex opening is communicated with an inner cavity of the pool body, and the convex opening is used for vacuumizing the interior of the pool body and filling alkali metal cesium atoms into the pool body. The structure is reliable, the cell body structure is made of a specific PMMA material, the conductivity of the PMMA material is small after cesium atoms are adsorbed, the low-frequency electric field shielding effect caused by adsorption of the cesium atoms is reduced under the condition that the optical property of the material and the influence of the electric field are not changed, the shielding effect is effectively reduced, and measurement of the space low-frequency electric field is achieved.