Investigations of Coherent Population Trapping in a Cold Atom-based System

There has been significant effort in developing atomic clocks and frequency standards using coherent population trapping (CPT) in cold atom-based systems. CPT is produced when atoms are optically excited into a dark state. The dark state makes the atoms transparent to optical interrogation, creating a narrow resonance useful for timekeeping and sensing magnetic fields. Leveraging the long coherence time of cold atoms as a test bench for developing improved CPT clock, requires a proper evaluation of the laser cooling technique and magneto-optical trap (MOT) used in the cold atom system. We report our findings in characterizing a pre-assembled double MOT system and evaluating the effectiveness of conducting CPT experiments. By implementing such a pre-assembled platform, we have achieved temperatures of 200 <!--[if gte msEquation 12]> style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>μK
microKelvin through polarization-gradient cooling and demonstrated the potential of our system for developing a CPT clock with improved accuracy and stability.