Abstract
In recent years, the coherent population trapping (CPT) phenomenon using a very small cell has attracted considerable attention for its potential application to ultra-compact atomic clock. For the miniaturization of CPT clock, it is important to clarify influence by the collision with atoms and cell walls. We study the effect of cell geometry on the CPT spectrum using a thin Cs vapor cell without buffer gas. When the cell length is below 1 mm and the laser intensity is sufficiently weak, the transit-time broadening is largely suppressed because only slow atoms have enough time to settle down on the dark state and contribute to the CPT signals. Furthermore, we show that introduction of buffer gas may broaden the CPT resonance in extremely thin cells. We also show that sub-Doppler signal which can be used for stabilization of laser frequency is obtained by using the CPT signal.
