Progress Towards a Compact Cold-Atom Microwave Clock

Knapp M, Walby S, Haji M, Foot C, Gill P

Here we present progress towards a compact cold-atom microwave clock. The system we have developed is currently a demonstrator for a clock architecture whereby a cloud of laser-cooled caesium atoms are dropped and interrogated during free fall. We describe the experimental sequence as well as show preliminary results related to signal-to-noise ratio limits and Rabi microwave spectroscopy.