Preliminary Results of the Trapped Atom Clock on a Chip

We present an atomic clock based on the interrogation of magnetically trapped Rb-87 atoms. Two photons, in the microwave and radiofrequency domain, excite the clock transition. At a magnetic field of 3.23 G the clock transition from vertical bar F = 1, m(F) = -1 > to vertical bar F = 2, m(F) = 1 > is 1st-order insensitive to magnetic field variations. Ramsey interrogation times longer than 2 s can be achieved, leading to a projected clock stability in the low 10(-13) at 1 s for a cloud of 10(5) atoms. We use an atom chip to cool and trap the atoms. A coplanar waveguide is integrated to the chip to carry the Ramsey interrogation signal, making the physics package as small as (5 cm)(3). We describe the experimental setup and show preliminary Ramsey fringes of line width 1.25 Hz.