An all-optical locking of a semiconductor laser to the atomic resonance line with 1 MHz accuracy

Zhang, Xiaogang; Tao, Zhiming; Zhu, Chuanwen; Hong, Yuan; Zhuang, Wei; Chen, Jingbiao

doi:10.1364/oe.21.028010

Cited by 36 publications

(26 citation statements)

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“…Active Faraday optical frequency standards [32] utilize Faraday atomic filters [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] as frequency references when working in bad-cavity regime. The output light frequency is determined by alkali atomic transition line of Faraday atomic filter and the output stimulated emission light power can be increased by adopting Ti: sapphire, dye and semiconductor materials as gain medium since the quantum reference of frequency standard and the stimulated emission of gain medium are spatially separated.…”

Section: A Active Faraday Optical Frequency Standards In Bad-cavity mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The active Faraday optical frequency standard, as demonstrated by a recent experiment [32], spatially separates the quantum reference of frequency standard and the stimulated emission of gain medium. In the active Faraday optical frequency standard [32], a narrow linewidth Faraday atomic filter is used as quantum reference of frequency standard [32][33][34][35], while the stimulated emission of gain medium can be provided by Ti: sapphire and dye, besides semiconductor diode materials [32]. In this way, the Faraday effect [35] found 170 years ago, starts to play a quantum reference role in modern optical clocks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ten years of active optical frequency standards

Pan

Zhuang

Xue

et al. 2015

2015 Joint Conference of the IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium &Amp; The European Frequency and Time Forum

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The concept of active optical clock was proposed ten years ago. In this paper, after a simple review, we will mainly present the most recent experimental progresses of active optical frequency standards in Peking University, including 4-level Cesium active optical frequency standards and active Faraday optical frequency standards.Keywords-Active optical clocks; bad-cavity laser; 4-level active optical frequency standards; active Faraday optical frequency standards.

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Section: A Active Faraday Optical Frequency Standards In Bad-cavity mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ten years of active optical frequency standards

Pan

Zhuang

Xue

et al. 2015

2015 Joint Conference of the IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium &Amp; The European Frequency and Time Forum

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“…4, we find the FWHM of the beat signal fitted to be 398(32) Hz and the FWHM linewidth for each setup is 281 (23) Hz. This result is nearly two orders better than frequency-stabilized laser with atomic filter [25,26] working in the good-cavity regime or interference filter [27], which indicates that the active Faraday optical frequency standard working in bad-cavity regime can reduce the influence of vibrations on frequency stability dramatically. The result is also better than just locking a diode laser to an atomic line [28], because the stimulated emission in the extended bad-cavity could enhance the coherence of the output light.…”

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confidence: 92%

Active Faraday optical frequency standard

Zhuang

Chen

2014

Opt. Lett.

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We propose the mechanism of active Faraday optical clock, and experimentally demonstrate active Faraday optical frequency standards based on 852 nm narrow bandwidth Faraday atomic filter by the method of velocity-selective optical pumping of cesium vapor. The center frequency of the active Faraday optical frequency standards is determined by the cesium 6 2 S 1/2 F = 4 to 6 2 P 3/2 F ′ = 4 and 5 crossover transition line. The optical heterodyne beat between two similar independent setups shows that the frequency linewidth reaches 996(26) Hz, which is 5.3 × 10 3 times smaller than the natural linewidth of the cesium 852 nm transition line. The maximum emitted light power reaches 75 µW. The active Faraday optical frequency standards reported here have advantages of narrow linewidth and reduced cavity pulling, which can readily be extended to other atomic transition lines of alkali and alkaline-earth metal atoms trapped in optical lattices at magic wavelengths, making it useful for new generation of optical atomic clocks. c 2018 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (140.3425) Laser stabilization; (120.2440) Filters; (120.3940) Metrology.The optical frequency standards based on neutral atoms in optical lattices [1][2][3][4] have shown better stability and accuracy at 10 −18 level. However, the performance of the optical lattice clocks is still limited by the Brownian thermo-mechanical noise of high-finesse optical cavities for frequency stabilization of clock lasers [5, 6]. Using atoms with narrow linewidth clock transitions and a bad-cavity to make an active optical clock [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], can greatly reduce the influence of the mechanical or thermal vibrations of the cavity mirrors on the emitted optical frequency. A spectral linewidth of just 1 mHz and a potential stability of two orders of magnitude better could be expected [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15].The active optical clocks [7][8][9] work in the bad-cavity regime, which corresponds to the condition that the cavity mode bandwidth Γ c is larger than the gain bandwidth γ a . The bad-cavity laser based on HeNe [16] or HeXe [17] infrared gas lasers with Γ c /γ a equals 1.4 was reported. The laser using rubidium two-photon Raman transition realized Γ c /γ a of 5×10 4 [14] and the Gaussian full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) was measured to be 350(25) Hz relative to the Raman dressing laser.In this Letter, we introduce the concept of the active Faraday optical clock, in which the optical emission frequency is determined by the center frequency of the Faraday atomic filter [18][19][20][21][22][23] when working in bad-cavity regime. The optical gain can be provided by Ti:Sapphire, dye or semiconductor materials. We experimentally demonstrate an active Faraday frequency standard using Cs 852 nm narrow bandwidth Faraday atomic filter in an extended bad-cavity of a laser diode. The maximum emitted light power reaches 75 µW and the frequency is determined by Cs 6 2 S 1/2 F = 4 to 6 2 P 3/2 F ′ = 4 and 5 crossover transition line with FWHM measured to be...

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“…In previous works, the high-frequency stability of LD sources by locking them to I 2 hyperfine transitions was proposed [15][16][17][18][19]. To lock the frequency of LDs, their frequencies must be modulated and turned around the frequency transition of I 2 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Displacement Measuring Interferometer Based on a Frequency-Locked Laser Diode with High Modulation Frequency

Hoang

et al. 2020

Applied Sciences

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Laser interferometers can achieve a nanometer-order uncertainty of measurements when their frequencies are locked to the reference frequencies of the atom or molecule transitions. There are three types of displacement-measuring interferometers: homodyne, heterodyne, and frequency modulation (FM) interferometers. Among these types of interferometer, the FM interferometer has many advantageous features. The interference signal is a series of time-dependent harmonics of modulation frequency, so the phase shift can be detected accurately using the synchronous detection method. Moreover, the FM interferometer is the most suitable for combination with a frequency-locked laser because both require frequency modulation. In previous research, low modulation frequencies at some tens of kHz have been used to lock the frequency of laser diodes (LDs). The low modulation frequency for the laser source means that the maximum measurement speed of the FM interferometers is limited. This paper proposes a novel contribution regarding the application of a high-frequency modulation for an LD to improve both the frequency stability of the laser source and the measurement speed of the FM interferometer. The frequency of the LD was locked to an I2 hyperfine component at 1 MHz modulation frequency. A high bandwidth lock-in amplifier was utilized to detect the saturated absorption signals of the I2 hyperfine structure and induce the signal to lock the frequency of the LD. The locked LD was then used for an FM displacement measuring interferometer. Moreover, a suitable modulation amplitude that affected the signal-to-noise ratio of both the I2 absorption signal and the harmonic intensity of the interference signal was determined. In order to verify the measurement resolution of the proposed interferometer, the displacement induced by a piezo electric actuator was concurrently measured by the interferometer and a capacitive sensor. The difference of the displacement results was less than 20 nm. To evaluate the measurement speed, the interferometer was used to measure the axial error of a high-speed spindle at 500 rpm. The main conclusion of this study is that a stable displacement interferometer with high accuracy and a high measurement speed can be achieved using an LD frequency locked to an I2 hyperfine transition at a high modulation frequency.

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An all-optical locking of a semiconductor laser to the atomic resonance line with 1 MHz accuracy

Cited by 36 publications

References 36 publications

Ten years of active optical frequency standards

Ten years of active optical frequency standards

Active Faraday optical frequency standard

A Displacement Measuring Interferometer Based on a Frequency-Locked Laser Diode with High Modulation Frequency

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