Ramsey Spectroscopy in a Micro-Fabricated Rb Vapor Cell for Miniature Atomic Clocks

We present a prospective experimental study on double-resonance Ramsey spectroscopy in a micro fabricated Rb vapor cell, in view of future miniature atomic clocks with improved stability performance. Ramsey signals with a narrow central fringe width of 1.5 kHz combined with a competitive contrast of > 5 % are observed, resulting in a clock short-term stability of approximate to 1x10(-11) tau(-1/2). The employed pulsed optical pumping (POP) scheme bears promise for reduced light-shift effects and thus for improved clock stability on medium- to long-term timescales.