MINIATURE ATOMIC FREQUENCY STANDARD CONTROLLED BY A DIGITAL PROCESSOR

摘要

A digital controller (25) time multiplexes dithering of the microwave frequency control signal and a laser wavelength control signal in a miniaturized cesium vapor atomic frequency standard (1). A unique common charge/sample and dump integrator (75) amplifies the photodetector output for the + and - dither of both the laser current and microwave frequency. To suppress error in the integrated photodetector output attributable to noise generated by the digital processor (25), the processor is placed in a sleep mode during the integration intervals. To further suppress errors, the cesium vapor electric heaters (15) are not energized during the intervals when the microwave signal is being dithered.