Summary of Fabrication Possibilities

The techniques developed at NIST for fabricating alkali atom vapor cells and highly miniaturized atomic frequency references can be used to construct atomic clocks with a wide range of characteristics. Some of these are summarized below:

Atoms: ⁸⁷Rb, ⁸⁵Rb and Cs, and most other elements that do not react chemically with, or diffuse through, glass or Si.

Buffer gases: most noble gases including Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe and other molecular gases such as N₂

Buffer-gas pressures: from below 100 Pa to several hundred kPa

Cell sizes: interior dimensions from a few tens of micrometers to several millimeters

Complicated structures such as those shown below, which may include channels and reservoirs.

Microfabricated structures in Si wafers for possible use in highly miniaturized atomic frequency references

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