A physics package for rubidium atomic frequency standard with a short-term stability of 2.4 × 10^-13 τ^-1/2

In this article, a new type of physics package with high signal to noise ratio for a rubidium atomic frequency standard is reported. To enhance the clock transition signal, a slotted tube microwave cavity with a field orientation factor of 0.93 and an absorption cell with the diameter of 30 mm were utilized in design of the cavity-cell assembly. Based on the spectral analysis of the three commonly used rubidium spectral lamps, the spectral lamp filled with Xe gas was chosen as the optical pumping source for its small line shape distortion. To suppress the shot noise of the signal, a band pass interference filter was used to filter out Xe spectral lines from the pumping light. A desk system of the rubidium frequency standard with the physics package was realized, and the short-term stability of the system was predicted and tested. The measured result is 2.4 × 10^-13 τ^-1/2 up to 100 s averaging time, in good agreement with the predicted one.