Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Atomic Clock

Here are my thoughts about the atomic clock.

An atomic clock is a clock that kind of an atomic resonance frequency standard as your accountant. While the time base of a conventional clock is that the pendulum, the atomic clock is based on the properties of atoms in the transition between different energy states.

The first person to express the concept of the atomic clock is Columbia University, Isidor Rabi in 1945. He suggested that a clock can be made from a technique developed in the 1930s called atomic beam magnetic resonance. In 1949, the National Bureau of Standards introduced the world atomic clock, first with the ammonia molecule as the source of the vibration, and the first atomic clock using cesium atoms as the vibration source announced in 1952.

Both conventional watches and atomic clocks use oscillations to monitor the passage of time. The vibration frequencies within the atom depends on the mass of the core and the gravity and electrostatic "spring" between the positively charged nucleus and the electron cloud around it.

The most accurate atomic clocks available today use cesium atom and normal magnetic fields and detectors. Cesium-133 is the most chosen for atomic clocks. The operation of a cesium-beam atomic clock is based on the transition between two states in the cesium atom. Rubidium is also used in atomic clocks, and reduces the cost, however, less stable rubidium clocks. Hydrogen maser short-term stability and low long-term precision. Mercury ion is also used in some of the atomic clocks. A particular isotope of Ytterbium has a particularly precise resonant frequency in one of the hyperfine transitions. Strontium has a hyperfine transition that is not correct. Strontium can be powered by solid-state lasers can be used for a very low cost, long life and compact clock making. Cesium atomic clocks are used in laboratories, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology to keep the national timetables.
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