This thesis reports the development of a simple-architecture laser system resonant at 895 nm used for the detection of high-contrast coherent population trapping (CPT) resonances in Cs vapor cells. The laser system combines a distributed feedback-diode (DFB) laser, a pigtailed Mach-Zehnder intensity electro-optic modulator (EOM) driven at 4.596 GHz for the generation of optical sidebands frequency-splitted by 9.192 GHz and a Michelson delay-line system to produce a bichromatic optical field that alternates between right and left circular polarization. This polarization pumping scheme, pioneerly proposed by Happer's group in Princeton on K atoms, allows to pump optically a maximum number of Cs atoms into the 0-0 magnetic field insensitive clock transition. Advanced noise reduction techniques were implemented in order to stabilize the laser power, the optical carrier suppression at the output of the EOM and the DFB laser frequency. Using this system, we demonstrated the detection of CPT resonances with a contrast of 80% in cm-scale Cs vapor cells. This contrast was measured to be increased until a saturation effect with the laser power at the expense of the CPT line broandening. To circumvent this issue, we proposed with a simple setup Ramsey spectroscopy of CPT resonances in vapor cells to combine high-contrast and narrow linewidth of the CPT resonances. In this setup, the EOM is used both for optical sidebands generation and light switch to produce Ramsey interaction. Ramsey fringes of 166 Hz linewidth with a contrast better than 30% were detected with this setup. This laser system will be in a near future devoted to be used for the development of a high-performance CPT-based atomic clock.
