OPTICAL-PUMPING CESIUM BEAM CLOCKS

The new generation of atomic cesium beam clocks should be more stable, reliable and compact. It seems that the conventional magnetic state s election technique used to perform the atomic preparation and the cloc k signal detection is not open to significant improvements. In this pa per we show how the optical pumping techniques overcome the difficulti es of the conventional magnetic state selection resonator and allow to consider the realization of a compact high performance atomic cesium beam tube. In a further future, cesium beam resonators should benefit from promising cooling and atom manipulation techniques with laser lig ht.