Miniature laser-pumped cesium cell atomic clock oscillator

Our approach to a low-power compact atomic oscillator is based on the use of a diode laser to excite a small cell (/spl sim/0.1 cm/sup 3/) containing cesium vapor and buffer gases. Laser wavelength and power are controlled solely with current and temperature, providing a compact, low-power, rugged, spectrally-pure, collimated optical source. A succession of physics packages, when operated with analog laboratory electronics, have typically given short term Allan deviation of /spl sigma/(/spl tau/)/spl tau//sup 1/2//spl les/2/spl times/10/sup -11/ for 10