METHOD OF MAKING SMALL-SIZE OPTICAL RESONANT CELLS WITH VAPOURS OF ALKALI METAL ATOMS Russian patent published in 2024 - IPC G04F5/14 

FIELD: instrumentation.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to precision instrumentation and is intended for making gas cells used in quantum devices, such as magnetometers, gyroscopes and atomic clocks. Method involves formation of a glass spherical cell body connected through a constriction to a glass ampoule, in the middle part of which there is a sealed glass capsule with an alkali metal, for example, especially pure caesium metal. Caesium in the capsule is placed with an offset to one of its ends, and the capsule itself is oriented in the ampoule with its end free from caesium towards the constriction side. After evacuation and degassing of the ampoule and the cell, the capsule is opened by pulsed laser action, after which a distillation zone and a cleaning zone are formed in the ampoule. Further, the ampoule and the cell are filled with a buffer gas, such as nitrogen, which, when passing through the purification zone, is freed from impurities due to their interaction with active caesium. After distillation of caesium into the cell, by heating the distillation zone of the ampoule, the cell is sealed off.

EFFECT: high level of controllability of the process of filling cells with vapours of alkali metals and minimizing the amount of foreign impurities in the gaseous medium, which improves the operational properties of the cells; this manifests itself in narrowing the width of optical and magnetic resonance lines and achieving a better signal-to-noise ratio.

1 cl, 1 dwg