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The Atomic Clock: A Different Way of Keeping Time Very Accurately
By Charles Wilkinson

Clocks are of different makes and types. One such clock is an atomic clock, that uses an atomic resonance frequency standard in order to power its counter. When it first came into existence, they were masers with equipment attached. Things have changed since then, and nowadays they use absorption spectroscopy of cold atoms that are found in atomic fountains and can give extremely accurate times, maintaining continual as well as stable time scales like the International Atomic Time.

First Made in 1949

In 1949, the U.S. National Bureau of Standards built the first atomic clock, and the first accurate version of it was built by Louis Essen in 1955 in the UK. Now, many years later, in 2004, NIST was successful in demonstrating a chip-scaled atomic clock that is so minute as to be one hundredth the size of any other, and is ideally suited for battery-driven applications.

Sometimes, the present-day radio clock is referenced to the atomic clock, and is a means of obtaining high quality atomic-derived time, though they cannot make for high-precision scientific work applications. Under mistaken notions or by simply lying, the radio clock is often sold by dealers as an atomic clock. There is plenty of ongoing research that should help make it smaller, more accurate, as well as cheaper and have better reliability.

Modern research on these clocks is focusing itself on developing clocks that are based on optical transitions instead of microwave transitions. There are different types of atomic clocks, but in principle they are mostly the same. The chief difference may be in the element used, as well as the means of detection of changes in energy levels. Some of the different atomic clocks are Cesium, hydrogen, and Rubidium clocks.

The Cesium atomic clock makes use of a beam of Cesium atoms, and the clock separates Cesium atoms of different energy levels through a magnetic field, and is believed to be the most accurate atomic clocks available in the present times. The hydrogen atomic clocks can keep hydrogen atoms at a particular energy level in the container that has walls of special material to stop the atoms from losing their higher energy state.

The Rubidium atomic clocks are very simple and also compact. They use a cell made of glass, and has Rubidium gas that can change its absorption of light at an optical rubidium frequency at the correct surrounding microwave frequency. Clearly, these types of clocks are becoming more and more advanced, and thus more and more efficient.

Author Details:
Charles Wilkinson, copywriter for various web sites about clocks & watches including The A to Z of and information junkies.

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