High performance compact atomic clock based on coherent population trapping

This paper reports on our best performance achieved with a laboratory compact CPT caesium clock. The device is working in a pulsed regime with orthogonal linear polarizations arranged in the so-called double-lambda configuration using two separate phase-locked lasers tuned to the D1 line. The short term frequency stability has been measured at the level of 3.2×10-13 τ-1/2. The mid-term stability is limited at a few 10-14 after hundreds of seconds. The main noise sources impacting both short and mid terms are presented and discussed.