Alkali-Metal Mixture for Synthetic Alkali Vapor Density Reduction

Abstract

Atom-based sensors offer the potential for long-term stable inertial measurements and are under active development for next generation inertial sensing applications. These sensors measure properties of atomic vapors where lasers interact and manipulate the atomic gas. Such measurements provide an attractive platform for long-term stable measurements since Nature has produced massive quantities of identical atoms where the interaction between light and atoms can be predicted to high precision through quantum mechanics. Furthermore, the electro-optic tools to manipulate and control the intensity, frequency, and polarization of light are well developed. However, deployment of these sensors is limited by both the complexity and size, weight, and power (SWaP) of the sensor architecture.