Micro-fabricated (MEMS) alkali vapor cells are at the heart of the miniaturization of atomic devices such as atomic magnetometers, atomic gyroscopes and atomic clocks. Among the different techniques used to fill microfabricated alkali vapor cell, UV decomposition of rubidium azide (RbN3) into metallic Rb and nitrogen in Al2O3 coated cells is a very promising approach for low-cost wafer-level fabrication. Here we present a detailed lifetime study of such cells. The rubidium consumption being the main identified cell failure mode, it is monitored with an novel image analysis technique and with high temperature long term aging tests.
The use of innovative and non-destructive methods to characterize the content of MEMS atomic vapor cells for atomic devices is reported: Raman spectroscopy is used as a fast and quantitative method to estimate the Nitrogen pressure inside the cell cavity and image analysis is used to quantify the amount of metallic Rubidium. These techniques can be used for buffer gas pressure optimization and cell lifetime assessment.
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