The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 26, 2020
Filed:
Dec. 26, 2018
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Bethesda, MD (US);
Bruce G. Tiemann, Longmont, CO (US);
LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION, Bethesda, MD (US);
Abstract
An ion-based atomic clock includes an ion trap, a cooling laser, a re-pumping source and a frequency comb source. The ion trap can trap a plurality of Raions generated by an ion generator. The cooling laser can facilitate trapping of the plurality of Raions within the ion trap and populate excited state levels in the trapped Raions. The re-pumping source can trigger decaying of the excited state levels to a first metastable level. The frequency comb source can directly drive a multi-terahertz (multi-THz) clock transition between the first metastable level and a second metastable level in the trapped Raions. A signal derived from the population remaining in the first metastable level following the driving of the clock transition can be used to guide the repetition rate of the frequency comb source to an accurate frequency related to the clock transition frequency.