Improved Tracking of an Atomic-Clock Resonance Transition

An improved method of making an electronic oscillator track the frequency of an atomic-clock resonance transition is based on fitting a theoretical nonlinear curve to measurements at three oscillator frequencies within the operational frequency band of the transition (in other words, at three points within the resonance peak). In the measurement process, the frequency of a microwave oscillator is repeatedly set at various offsets from the nominal resonance frequency, the oscillator signal is applied in a square pulse of the oscillator signal having a suitable duration (typically, of the order of a second), and, for each pulse at each frequency offset, fluorescence photons of the transition in question are counted. As described below, the counts are used to determine a new nominal resonance frequency. Thereafter, offsets are determined with respect to the new resonance frequency. The process as described thus far is repeated so as to repeatedly adjust the oscillator to track the most recent estimate of the nominal resonance frequency.