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:
Sep. 05, 2006
Filed:
Feb. 07, 2005
William Happer, Princeton, NJ (US);
Yuan-yu Jau, Princeton, NJ (US);
Nicholas N. Kuzma, Princeton, NJ (US);
Eli Miron, Omer, IL;
Amber B. Post, Batesville, AZ (US);
Michael V. Romalis, Princeton, NJ (US);
William Happer, Princeton, NJ (US);
Yuan-Yu Jau, Princeton, NJ (US);
Nicholas N. Kuzma, Princeton, NJ (US);
Eli Miron, Omer, IL;
Amber B. Post, Batesville, AZ (US);
Michael V. Romalis, Princeton, NJ (US);
Princeton University, Office of Technology, Licensing & Intellectual Property, Princeton, NJ (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for increasing the intensity of coherent population trapping (CPT) resonances, used in atomic clocks and magnetometers, by pumping the atoms with light of alternating polarization. Pumping with such light, characterized by a photon spin vector that alternates in direction at a hyperfine frequency of the atoms at the location of the atoms, is referred to as push-pull pumping. In one embodiment of the system of the present invention, alkali-metal vapor is pumped with alternating circular-polarization Dlaser light that is intensity modulated at appropriate resonance frequencies, thereby exciting CPT resonances, which can be observed as increase in the mean transmittance of the alkali-metal vapor. These resonances are substantially enhanced due to an optically-induced concentration of atoms in the resonant energy sublevels.