A clock apparatus includes: (a) a gas cell, including a continuous path cavity including a sealed interior for providing a signal waveguide; (b) an apparatus for providing an electromagnetic wave to travel along the continuous path cavity and for circulating around the continuous path cavity back toward and past a point of entry of the electromagnetic wave in the continuous path cavity; (c) a dipolar gas inside the sealed interior of the cavity; and (d) receiving apparatus for detecting an amount of energy in the electromagnetic wave, wherein the amount of energy is responsive to an amount of absorption of the electromagnetic wave as the electromagnetic wave passes through the dipolar gas.

An atomic oscillator includes an atom cell that includes walls defining an internal space in which alkali metal atoms are contained, a light emitting element that emits light for exciting the alkali metal atoms, and a light detecting element that detects the light transmitted through the atom cell, in which the atom cell includes a first portion in which gaseous alkali metal atoms are contained and through which light from the light emitting element passes along an x-axis, a second portion in which liquid or solid alkali metal atoms are contained, and a third portion that is positioned between the first portion and the second portion and couples the first portion and the second portion, and in the third portion, a distance between two walls facing each other along a y-axis orthogonal to the x-axis decreases from the first portion toward the second portion along the y-axis at a constant decrease rate.

An atomic oscillator includes an atom cell that includes walls defining an internal space in which alkali metal atoms are contained, a light emitting element that emits light for exciting the alkali metal atoms, and a light detecting element that detects the light transmitted through the atom cell, in which the atom cell includes a first portion in which gaseous alkali metal atoms are contained and through which light from the light emitting element passes along an x-axis, a second portion in which liquid or solid alkali metal atoms are contained, and a third portion that is positioned between the first portion and the second portion and couples the first portion and the second portion, and in the third portion, a distance between two walls facing each other along a y-axis orthogonal to the x-axis decreases from the first portion toward the second portion along the y-axis at a constant decrease rate.

An illumination apparatus includes a case, a plurality of oscillators configured to generate electromagnetic waves, and housed in the case and arranged two-dimensionally, a window unit configured to emit therefrom the electromagnetic waves, and disposed on a first side of the case, a plurality of inflow holes configured to allow fluid to flow into the case, and disposed at positions at which the electromagnetic waves from the window unit propagate, and a discharging unit configured to discharge the fluid, which has flowed into the case, out of the case, and disposed on a second side of the case, which is an opposite side to the first side. When the oscillator is viewed from the window unit, a part of the oscillator is located on an inner side of the inflow hole, and the fluid which has flowed into the case through the inflow hole reaches the oscillator.

A system includes a vacuum chamber to receive a laser beam and a charged nanoparticle. The nanoparticle oscillates at a trapping frequency in a focus of the laser beam. Resonant oscillation of the nanoparticle is driven by a presence of an ambient electric field adjacent to the vacuum chamber. The system also includes a controller to tune the trapping frequency of an oscillating nanoparticle to be in resonance with the ambient electric field causing on-resonant enhancement of the system; a detector to detect positional changes of the oscillating nanoparticle; and a processor to calculate an electromagnetic force of the ambient electric field based on the positional changes of the oscillating nanoparticle.

A system includes a vacuum chamber to receive a laser beam and a charged nanoparticle. The nanoparticle oscillates at a trapping frequency in a focus of the laser beam. Resonant oscillation of the nanoparticle is driven by a presence of an ambient electric field adjacent to the vacuum chamber. The system also includes a controller to tune the trapping frequency of an oscillating nanoparticle to be in resonance with the ambient electric field causing on-resonant enhancement of the system; a detector to detect positional changes of the oscillating nanoparticle; and a processor to calculate an electromagnetic force of the ambient electric field based on the positional changes of the oscillating nanoparticle.

In some embodiments, a molecular clock includes: a waveguide gas cell containing gas molecules having a rotational spectral line with a first frequency; a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) to generate a clock signal; a transmitter referenced to the clock signal to generate a probing signal for transmission through the waveguide gas cell; and a receiver to receive the probing signal transmitted through the waveguide gas cell and interacting with gas molecules. The receiver can include: a filter circuit configured to filter out even harmonic components from the received signal; and a lock-in detector to generate an error signal indicating an offset between the first frequency and the second frequency, wherein the error signal is fed back to control generation of the VCO clock signal.

This oscillator comprises: a source generating an incident optical wave at a pulsation frequency ; an optomechanical resonator, having optical resonances at the pulsation frequency and mechanical resonances at a frequency f.sub.1 and generating, from the incident optical wave, emergent optical waves at the pulsation frequencies and 2f.sub.1, and an acoustic wave at frequency f.sub.1; and, a photodiode delivering a useful signal at frequency f.sub.1 from the emergent waves. This oscillator further comprises: an acoustic propagation means for propagating the acoustic wave over a distance in order to produce a delayed acoustic wave; a means for converting the delayed acoustic wave into a delay signal at the frequency f.sub.1; and, a control loop, processing the delay signal in order to obtain a control signal applied to the source.

This oscillator comprises: a source generating an incident optical wave at a pulsation frequency ; an optomechanical resonator, having optical resonances at the pulsation frequency and mechanical resonances at a frequency f.sub.1 and generating, from the incident optical wave, emergent optical waves at the pulsation frequencies and 2f.sub.1, and an acoustic wave at frequency f.sub.1; and, a photodiode delivering a useful signal at frequency f.sub.1 from the emergent waves. This oscillator further comprises: an acoustic propagation means for propagating the acoustic wave over a distance in order to produce a delayed acoustic wave; a means for converting the delayed acoustic wave into a delay signal at the frequency f.sub.1; and, a control loop, processing the delay signal in order to obtain a control signal applied to the source.

The present invention relates to a radiofrequency oscillator comprising an optical resonator being a ring waveguide allowing the propagation of a first wave in a first direction and of a second wave in a second direction, the second direction being opposite to the first direction, and the resonator comprising an active optical medium generating a first optical line from the first wave and a second optical line from the second wave, the resonator being in contact with a part made of a material featuring a magneto-optic effect, an applier of external magnetic field of adjustable intensity on the resonator generating a frequency offset between the first wave and the second wave, and a processing circuit converting the beat between the two optical lines in a radiofrequency signal.