We theoretically and experimentally study the noise of a class-A dual-frequency vertical external cavity surface emitting laser operating at Cesium clock wavelength. The intensity noises of the two orthogonally polarized modes and the phase noise of their beatnote are investigated. The intensity noises of the two modes and their correlations are well predicted by a theory based on coupled rate equations. The phase noise of the beatnote is well described by considering both thermal effects and the effect of phase-amplitude coupling. The good agreement between theory and experiment indicates possible ways to further decrease the laser noises.

We report a fully-correlated multi-mode pumping architecture optimized for dramatic noise reduction of a class-A dual-frequency Vertical External Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VECSEL). Thanks to amplitude division of a laser diode, the two orthogonally polarized modes emitted by the VECSEL oscillating at 852 nm are separately pumped by two beams exhibiting fully in-phase correlated intensity noises. This is shown to lead to very strong and in-phase correlations between the two lasing modes intensities. As a result, the phase noise power spectral density of the RF beat note generated by the two modes undergoes a drastic reduction of about 10 to 20 dB throughout the whole frequency range from 10 kHz to 20 MHz and falls below the detection floor above a few MHz. A good agreement is found with a model which uses the framework of rate equations coupled by cross-saturation. The remaining phase noise is attributed to thermal effects and additional technical noises and lies mainly within the bandwidth of a phase-locked-loop.

An ultra-low intensity and beatnote phase noise dual-frequency vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser is built at telecom wavelength. The pump laser is realized by polarization combining two single-mode fibered laser diodes in a single-mode fiber, leading to a 100% in-phase correlation of the pump noises for the two modes. The relative intensity noise is lower than -140  dB/Hz, and the beatnote phase noise is suppressed by 30 dB, getting close to the spontaneous emission limit. The role of the imperfect cancellation of the thermal effect resulting from unbalanced pumping of the two modes in the residual phase noise is evidenced.

Abstract. An experimental study of the delayed threshold phenomenon in a Vertical Extended Cavity Semiconductor Emitting Laser is carried out. Under modulation of the pump power, the laser intensity exhibits a hysteresis behavior in the vicinity of the threshold. The temporal width of this hysteresis is measured as a function of the modulation frequency, and is proved to follow the predicted scaling law.A model based on the rate equations is derived and used to analyze the experimental observations. A frequency variation of the laser around the delayed threshold and induced by the phase-amplitude coupling is predicted and estimated.

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A fully analytical model is established for the thermal fluctuations of the beatnote phase of an optically pumped dual-frequency vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL). This model starts with the resolution of the heat equation inside the semiconductor chip structure and follows with the evaluation of the induced thermo-optic phase shift. Both the fluctuations of the heat induced by the optical pumping and the thermodynamic fluctuations at room temperature are considered. On the one hand, the thermal response of the structure is investigated and a significant thermal lens effect caused by the pump is deduced. On the other hand, the power spectral density of the frequency noise is calculated in the presence of diffusion spatial anisotropy. The present model is in very good agreement with the phase noise measured for a dual-frequency VECSEL at 852 nm for application to metrology and the validity of the usual low-pass filter model is discussed.

We report the implementation and performance of a double servo-loop for intensity and phasedifference active stabilization of a dual-frequency vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser (DF-VECSEL) for coherent population trapping (CPT) of cesium atoms in the framework of compact atomic clocks. In-phase fully correlated pumping of the two laser modes is identified as the best scheme for intensity noise reduction, and an analytical model allows the optimization of the active stabilization strategy. Optical phase-locking the beat-note to a local oscillator leads to a phase noise level below-103 dBc/Hz at 100 Hz from the carrier. The laser contribution to the short-term frequency stability of the clock is predicted to be compatible with a targeted Allan deviation below σy = 5 × 10 −13 over one second.

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