US Patent Issued to NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS on March 4 for "Atomic optical reference system" (California, New Mexico Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,242,141, issued on March 4, was assigned to NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS Corp. (Falls Church, Va.).

"Atomic optical reference system" was invented by Eric A. Imhof (Albuquerque, N.M.), Steven Ryan Jefferts (Chatsworth, Calif.) and Vyacheslav Lebedev (Redondo Beach, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "One example includes an atomic optical reference system. The system includes an optical system comprising a laser configured to generate an optical beam. The system also includes a vapor cell comprising alkali metal atoms that are stimulated in response to a modulated beam corresponding to an amplitude-modulated version of the optical beam. Th...