Measurement of the 5S_1/2 to 5D_5/2 two-photon clock transition frequency of rubidium-85 in high vacuum

We present a scheme to precisely resolve the unperturbed line shape of an optical rubidium clock transition in a high vacuum, by which we avoided the systematic errors of “collision shift” and “modulation shift.” The spectral resolution resolved by this scheme is significantly improved such that we can use “Zeeman broadening” to inspect the stray magnetic field, through which we were able to compensate the magnetic field inside the Rb cells to be below 10^{− 3} Gauss. We thus update the absolute frequency of the clock transition and propose a standard operation procedure (SOP) for the clock self-calibration.