Locking the local oscillator phase to the atomic phase via weak measurement

A new method is proposed to reduce the frequency noise of a local oscillator to the level of white phase noise by maintaining (not destroying by projective measurement) the coherence of the ensemble pseudo-spin of atoms over many measurement cycles. This method, which we call 'atomic phase lock (APL)', uses weak measurement to monitor the phase in the Ramsey method and repeat the cycle without initialization of the phase. APL will achieve white phase noise as long as the noise accumulated during dead time and the decoherence are smaller than the measurement noise. A numerical simulation confirmed that with APL, the Allan deviation is averaged down at a maximum rate that is proportional to the inverse of the total measurement time, τ-1. In contrast, current atomic clocks that use projection measurement suppress the noise only to the white frequency noise level, in which case the Allan deviation scales as τ-1/2. Faraday rotation is one way to achieve weak measurement for APL. The strength of Faraday rotation with 171Yb+ ions trapped in a linear rf-trap is evaluated, and the performance of APL is discussed. The main source of decoherence is a spontaneous emission, induced by the probe beam for Faraday rotation measurement. The Faraday rotation measurement can be repeated until the decoherence becomes comparable to the signal-to-noise ratio of the measurement. The number of cycles for a realistic experimental parameter is estimated to be ∼100. (paper)