Description
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking information on vendors that can provide two high-performance optical atomic clocks. The clocks should have a short-term frequency instability of less than 1E-13 and a long-term frequency instability of less than 8E-15 after 100,000 seconds of averaging. The clocks should also have a high-stability RF signal output and an optical output. The clocks will be used to contribute to the official US time and will be integrated into the timescale in Boulder, Colorado.
Some key features of the required clocks include:
• Frequency discipline of an oscillator to an atomic or molecular spectroscopic transition
• Clock outputs at nominal frequencies of 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 100 MHz, or 1 GHz
• Radio frequency outputs terminating in SMA-female connectors as single-ended sinusoidal signals
• Optical output of stabilized continuous-wave laser coupled in a single-mode polarization-maintaining fiber
• Short-term frequency instability of all outputs expressed as the Allan deviation (ADEV) at 1-second average intervals
• Electrical power dissipation less than 150 W among all components contributing to clock stability
The document also mentions that the clocks should be robust and able to operate with minimal input from technical staff, and that the clock performance should be minimally affected by environmental fluctuations.