Magnetic field stabilization system designed for the cold-atom coherent population-trapping clock

Accurate control of magnetic fields is crucial for cold-atom experiments,often necessitating custom-designed control systems due to limitations in commercially available power supplies.Here,we demonstrate precise and flexible control of a static magnetic field by employing a field-programmable gate array and a feedback loop.This setup enables us to maintain exceptionally stable current with a fractional stability of 1 ppm within 30 s.The error signal of the feedback loop exhibited a noise level of 10^(-5)A·Hz^(-1/2)for control bandwidths below 10 k Hz.Utilizing this precise magnetic field control system,we investigate the second-order Zeeman shift in the context of cold-atom coherent population-trapping (CPT)clocks.Our analysis reveals the second-order Zeeman coefficient to be 574.21 Hz/G^(2),with an uncertainty of 1.36 Hz/G^(2).Consequently,the magnetic field stabilization system we developed allows us to achieve a second-order Zeeman shift below10^(-14),surpassing the long-term stability of current cold-atom CPT clocks.

Effect of niobium substitution on microstructures and thermal stability of TbCu7-type Sm-Fe-N magnets

This paper reports crystal structures, magnetic properties and thermal stability of TbCu7-type Sm（8.5）Fe（（85.8-x）Co（4.5）Zr（1.2）Nbx（x = 0-1.8） melt-spun compounds and their nitrides, investigated by means of X-ray diffraction, vibrating sample magnetometer, flux meter and transmission electron microscope. It is found that the lattice parameter ratio c/a of TbCu7-type crystal structure increases with Nb substitution, which indicates that the Nb can increase the stability of the metastable phase in the Sm-Fe ribbons. Nb substitution impedes the formation of magnetic soft phase a-Fe in which reversed domains initially form during the magnetization reversal process. Meanwhile, Nb substitution refines grains and leads to homogeneous micro structure with augmented grain boundaries. Thus the exchange coupling pining field is enhanced and irreversible domain wall propagation gets suppressed. As a result, the magnetic properties are improved and the irreversible flux loss of magnets is notably decreased. A maximum value 771.7 kA/m of the intrinsic coercivity H（cj） is achieved in the 1.2 at% substituted samples.The irreversible flux loss for 2 h exposure at 120 ℃ declines from 8.26% for Nb-free magnets to 6.32% for magnets with 1.2 at% Nb substitution.