A Laser-Cooled Frequency Standard for GPS

Thomas P. Heavner, Stephan Barlow, Marc A. Weiss, Neil Ashby and Steven R. Jefferts

Abstract:	Our group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is in the initial phase of developing a prototype laser-cooled atomic frequency standard (AFS) for potential use in a future global positioning system (GPS) system. The expected fractional frequency stability or Allan deviation, sy(t), will be 2 × 10-13 at one second, improving as the square-root of the averaging time to 7 × 10-16 at one day. This corresponds to an expected time dispersion of 0.060 ns at one day, or 0.02 m of user range error (URE). We discuss the design and development process underway at NIST, as well as capabilities enabled by this AFS in GPS.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2011) September 20 - 23, 2011 Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon Portland, OR
Pages:	2946 - 2949
Cite this article:	Heavner, Thomas P., Barlow, Stephan, Weiss, Marc A., Ashby, Neil, Jefferts, Steven R., "A Laser-Cooled Frequency Standard for GPS," Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2011), Portland, OR, September 2011, pp. 2946-2949.
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