Field Shift of Coherent Population Trapping Resonance Taking into Account Spatial Inhomogeneity of the Light Beam

We study the field shift of coherent population trapping (CPT) resonance excited by a bichromatic field in an open Λ system with account for the Gaussian profile of the laser radiation intensity. Two methods for error signal formation are considered: the harmonic frequency modulation and the step phase modulation (phase jumps). It is shown that the spatial inhomogeneity of the light beam leads to an essentially nonlinear dependence of the error signal shift on the laser radiation intensity. We propose an approach for the linearization of this dependence, which is important for the development of methods for suppressing the field shift in atomic clocks based on CPT resonances.