How does the cesium atomic clock work?
Cesium-133 atoms are first heated to a gas inside the clock. A high velocity beam of cesium-133 atoms escape from the super-heated clock and are directed towards a powerful magnetic field. This magnetic field separates absorption cesium atoms from their opposite state, emission cesium atoms. The absorption cesium atoms are then beamed into a microwave oven emitting microwaves at a frequency very close to that of cesium-133. Some of these atoms then absorb microwaves and are redirected towards a detector. By amplifying this frequency and feeding it back to the microwave oven the microwaves can be tuned to the exact frequency of cesium-133, concentrating the number of energized atoms that reach the detector. Once the exact frequency of cesium-133 has been achieved by the microwave oven the frequency can be downloaded and reduced in frequency and used to keep time to immense accuracy. The theory of the atomic clock, simply expressed, all atoms of cesium-133 are exactly the same and vibrat
