An atomic object confined in a particular region of an atomic object confinement apparatus is cooled using an S-to-P-to-D EIT cooling operation. A controller associated with the atomic object confinement apparatus controls first and second manipulation sources to respectively provide first and second manipulation signals to the particular region. The first manipulation signal is characterized by a first wavelength corresponding to a transition between an S manifold and a P manifold of a first component of the atomic object and detuned from the S-to-P transition by a first detuning. The second manipulation signal is characterized by a second wavelength corresponding to a transition between the P manifold and a D manifold of the first component and detuned from the P-to-D transition by a second detuning. The first and second detunings selected to establish a dark state associated with a two-photon transition between the S manifold and the D manifold.

A Ramsey spectrometer is provided with an optical path, an optical path length stabilization circuit configured to stabilize a length of the optical path, a modulator optically connected to the optical path, the modulator being configured to generate resonant laser light of a first frequency f1 that causes a resonance of an atom, a molecule, or an ion as a spectroscopic target in pulses a plurality of times and generates non-resonant laser light of a second frequency f2 that does not cause the resonance, and a spectroscopic unit configured to spectroscope the spectroscopic target. The spectroscopic unit detects a state change of the spectroscopic target corresponding to the first frequency f1, the state change being caused by irradiating the resonant laser light to the spectroscopic target.

An optical lattice clock includes a clock transition space having disposed therein an atom group trapped in an optical lattice, and a triaxial magnetic field correction coil for correcting the magnetic field of the clock transition space. Additionally, in a correction space that includes the clock transition space and is larger than the clock transition space, a photoreceiver promotes the clock transition of the atom group trapped in the optical lattice and acquires a clock transition frequency distribution for the correction space. Further, a corrector corrects the magnetic field of the triaxial magnetic field correction coil on the basis of the frequency distribution measured by the photo receiver.

A method is provided for sensing a magnetic field in a magnetic gradiometer of the kind in which pump light and light constituting an optical carrier traverse first and second atomic vapor cells that contain host atoms and that are separated from each other by a known distance. According to such method, the host atoms are prepared in a coherent superposition of two quantum states that differ in energy by an amount that is sensitive to an ambient magnetic field. Modulation of the optical carrier in the respective cells gives rise to sidebands that interfere to generate a beat frequency indicative of the magnetic field gradient. The host atoms are prepared at least in a mode that allows measurement of ambient magnetic field components perpendicular to the axis of the pump light. In such mode, the host atoms are spin-polarized by pump light while subjected to a controlled magnetic field directed parallel to the pump beam, and then the controlled magnetic field is adiabatically extinguished.

A frequency-modulated spectrometry (FMS) output is used to stabilize an atomic clock by serving as an error signal to regulate the clock's oscillator frequency. Rubidium 87 atoms are localized within a hermetically sealed cell using an optical (e.g., magneto-optical) trap. The oscillator output is modulated by a sinusoidal radio frequency signal and the modulated signal is then frequency doubled to provide a modulated 788 nm probe signal. The probe signal excites the atoms, so they emit 775.8 nm fluorescence. A spectral filter is used to block 788 nm scatter from reaching a photodetector, but also blocks 775.8 nm fluorescence with an angle of incidence larger than 8° relative to a perpendicular to the spectral filter. The localized atoms lie within a conical volume defined by the 8° effective angle of incidence so an FMS output with a high signal-to-noise ratio is obtained.

An apparatus for light delivery to magneto-optical trap (MOT) system utilizes only planar optical diffraction devices including a planar-integrated-circuit PIC and a metasurface MS. When MOT is based on the use of a diffraction grating, a grating chip is additionally employed to launch and manipulate light for laser cooling. Bridging the gap between the sub-micrometer-scale guided mode on the PIC and the centimeter-scale beam needed for laser cooling, a magnification of the mode area by about 10.sup.10 is demonstrated using an on-chip extreme-mode-converter to launch a Gaussian mode into free space from a PIC-waveguide and a beam-shaping, polarization-dependent MS to form a diverging laser beam with a flat-top spatial profile, which efficiently illuminates the grating chip without loss of light. Comparison to equivalent Gaussian-beam-illuminated GMOTs evidences advantageous power efficiency of operation of the proposed light delivery system as compared with conventional systems employing Gaussian distribution of illumination at the grating chip.

An ensemble of spin defect centers or other atom-like quantum systems in a solid-state host can be used as a compact alternative for an atomic clock thanks to an architecture that overcomes magnetic and temperature-induced systematics. A polariton-stabilized solid-state spin clock hybridizes a microwave resonator with a magnetic-field-insensitive spin transition within the ground state of a spin defect center (e.g., a nitrogen vacancy center in diamond). Detailed numerical and analytical modeling of this polariton-stabilized solid-state spin clock indicates a potential fractional frequency instability below 10.sup.−13 over a 1-second measurement time, assuming present-day experimental parameters. This stability is a significant improvement over the state-of-the-art in miniaturized atomic vapor clocks.

An oscillation device, such as a frequency standard or “atomic clock”, is disclosed. The device comprises: a system capable of undergoing transitions between different energy states, the transitions defining at least a first resonance frequency and a second resonance frequency; an excitation device arranged to induce the system to undergo such transitions; a detection device arranged to detect a response of the system caused by the excitation device, to produce an output; and a controller arranged to receive the output, to control the excitation device to stimulate said transitions, and to obtain signals corresponding to at least the first and second resonance frequencies; wherein the controller is also arranged to process the obtained signals to produce a corrected output signal that is compensated against at least one influence on the resonance frequencies of the system.

Smart electric meters configured to perform fast, time-synchronized electrical energy measurements at the consumer-level are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a smart electric meter includes circuitry configured to measure an electrical value at a location of an end user in a power system. The smart electric meter can further include an atomic clock configured to output a timing signal, and a controller configured to receive (a) the measured electrical value from the circuitry and (b) the timing signal from the atomic clock. The controller can further (a) process the electrical value to generate meter data and (b) generate a time tag based on the timing signal. Then, the controller can associate the time tag with the meter data to generate time-tagged meter data.

A quantum interference apparatus includes a space and an alkali-metal atomic cell. A static magnetic field having a specific direction and a specific intensity is applied to the space. The alkali-metal atomic cell is disposed inside the space. Alkali-metal atoms are encapsulated in the alkali-metal atomic cell. As a static magnetic field is applied to the alkali-metal atomic cell and excitation light having at least two different frequency components is applied thereto, a quantum interference state of the alkali-metal atoms is formed. Among the frequency components of the excitation light, a frequency component that participates in the formation of the quantum interference state is light containing linearly-polarized lights having the same polarization direction as each other. The static magnetic field applied to the space is adjusted so that fluctuations of a transition frequency between ground levels forming the quantum interference state with respect to the magnetic field is suppressed.