Strontium Optical Clock Research Articles

382 mW External-Cavity Frequency Doubling 461 nm Laser Based on Quasi-Phase Matching

To rapidly improve strontium optical clocks, a high-power, high-efficiency, and high-beam-quality 461 nm laser is required. In blue lasers based on periodically poled KTiOPO4 crystals, the optical absorption in the crystals can induce thermal effects, which must be considered in the design of high-efficiency external-cavity frequency doubling lasers. The interdependence between the absorption and the thermally induced quasi-phase mismatch was taken into account for the solution to the coupled wave equations. By incorporating multilayer crystal approximation, a theoretical model was developed to accurately determine the absorption of the frequency doubling laser. Based on experimental parameters, the temperature gradient in the crystal, the influence of the boundary temperature on the conversion efficiency, and the focal length of the thermal lens were simulated. Theoretical calculations were employed to optimize the parameters of the external-cavity frequency doubling experiment. In the experiment, in a bow-tie external cavity was demonstrated by pumping a 10 mm long periodically poled KTiOPO4 crystal with a 922 nm laser, a 461 nm laser with a maximum output power of 382 mW. The conversion efficiency of the incident fundamental laser was 66.2%. The M2 factor of the frequency doubling beam was approximately 1.4.

Optically Loaded Strontium Lattice Clock With a Single Multi-Wavelength Reference Cavity

We report on the realization of a new compact strontium optical clock using a 2-D magneto-optical-trap (2D-MOT) as cold atomic source and a multi-wavelength cavity as the frequency stabilization system. All needed optical frequencies are stabilized to a zero-thermal expansion high-finesse optical resonator and can be operated without frequency adjustments for weeks. We present the complete characterization of the apparatus. Optical control of the atomic source allows us to perform low-noise clock operation without atomic signal normalization. Long- and short-term stability tests of the clock have been performed for the <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">88</sup> Sr bosonic isotope by means of interleaved clock operation. Finally, we present the first preliminary accuracy budget of the system.

48 -cm-long room-temperature cavities in vertical and horizontal orientations for Sr optical clock.

The development of an optical clock with ultimate accuracy and stability requires lasers with very narrow linewidths. We present two ultrastable laser systems based on 48-cm-long Fabry-Perot cavities made of ultralow expansion glass in horizontal and vertical configurations operating at 698 nm. Fractional frequency instability of the beat signal between the two lasers reaches 1.6×10-15 at the averaging time of 1 s. We experimentally characterized the contribution of the different noise sources (power fluctuations, residual amplitude modulation, the Doppler noise, and sensitivity to the shock impact) and found that in our case the laser frequency instability to a large extent is determined by an optoelectronic feedback loop. Although the vertical configuration was easier to manufacture and transport, it is much more sensitive to acoustics and horizontal accelerations compared to the horizontal one. Both laser systems were transported over a 60 km distance from the Lebedev Physical Institute to the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Physical-Engineering and Radiotechnical Metrology (VNIIFTRI), where they serve as local oscillators for spectroscopy of the clock transition in the recently developed strontium optical clock.

Species of vacuum chamber design with cryogenic cooling for strontium optical clocks

The paper briefly reviews the reasons for the optical clock resonance shift due to thermal radiation. The ways to decrease thermal radiation influence with modification of the spectroscope by introducing of the cryogenic elements as an environment of the atoms from a cryogenic nozzle to create special internal chamber with the example of 87Sr optical clocks are shown. The possibility and usefulness of using the double-circuit dual-mode cryogenic chamber to suppress thermal shift in a strontium optical clocks are considered. The selection of the each element material of the chamber is based on simulated thermal distributions and heat flows of these elements. The detailed concept of this double-circuit dual-mode chamber and calculation of the shifts from each element of this chamber are also presented.

Development of an Interference Filter-Stabilized External-Cavity Diode Laser for Space Applications

The National Time Service Center of China is developing a compact, highly stable, 698 nm external-cavity diode laser (ECDL) for dedicated use in a space strontium optical clock. This article presents the optical design, structural design, and preliminary performance of this ECDL. The ECDL uses a narrow-bandwidth interference filter for spectral selection and a cat’s-eye reflector for light feedback. To ensure long-term stable laser operation suitable for space applications, the connections among all the components are rigid and the design avoids any spring-loaded adjustment. The frequency of the first lateral rocking eigenmode is 2316 Hz. The ECDL operates near 698.45 nm, and it has a current-controlled tuning range over 40 GHz and a PZT-controlled tuning range of 3 GHz. The linewidth measured by the heterodyne beating between the ECDL and an ultra-stable laser with 1 Hz linewidth is about 180 kHz. At present, the ECDL has been applied to the principle prototype of the space ultra-stable laser system.

Optical frequency reference for the national time scale

Incorporation of a strontium optical clock as an optical frequency reference into the primary standard GET 1-2018 is experimentally implemented. A new model is proposed to define a local atomic time scale using an optical reference incorporated into a complex for reproducing primary standard units. Preliminary results of comparing the frequencies of the optical reference and the hydrogen maser entering the composition of primary time and frequency standards are presented.

锶光钟Zeeman减速器中截止速度对蓝磁光阱原子数的影响

锶光钟Zeeman减速器中截止速度对蓝磁光阱原子数的影响

Optical frequency comb active filtering and amplification for second cooling laser of strontium optical clock

In this paper, we propose an optical frequency comb active filtering and amplification method combined with injection-locking technique to select and amplify a single mode from a femtosecond mode-locked laser. The key concept is to optically inject an optical frequency comb into a single mode grating external cavity semiconductor laser. The optical frequency comb based on a femtosecond mode-locked laser with a narrow mode spacing of 250 MHz is used as a master laser. The center wavelength of the optical frequency comb is 689 nm with a 10 nm spectral width. A single mode grating external cavity semiconductor laser with a grating of 1800 lines/mm is used as a slave laser, and the external-cavity length from the diode surface to the grating is approximately 50 mm. The master laser is injected into the slave laser, and in order to select a single comb mode, we adjust the power of the master laser to control the locking range of the slave laser whose linewidth is smaller than the optical frequency comb repetition rate (250 MHz). While the operating current of the slave laser is set to be 55 mA and a seeding power is adopted to be 240 W, a single longitudinal mode is selected and amplified from 2.5104 longitudinal modes of the femtosecond optical comb despite the low power of the single mode. By tuning the optical frequency comb repetition frequency, the single longitudinal mode follows the teeth of the femtosecond optical comb, indicating the success in the optical frequency comb active filtering and amplification. The locking range is measured to be about 20 MHz. Meanwhile, the repetition frequency of the optical frequency comb is locked to a narrow linewidth 698 nm laser system (Hz level), thus the slave laser inherits the spectral characteristics of the 698 nm laser system. The linewidth is measured to be 280 Hz which is limited by the test beating laser. Then a continuous-wave narrow linewidth 689 nm laser source with a power of 12 mW and a side-mode suppression ratio of 100 is achieved. This narrow linewidth laser is used as a second-stage cooling laser source in the 88Sr optical clock, the cold atoms with a temperature of 3 K and a number of 5106 are obtained. This method can also be used to obtain other laser sources for atomic optical clock, and thus enabling the integrating and miniaturizing of a clock system.

Extracting dark matter signatures from atomic clock stability measurements

We analyze possible effects of the dark matter environment on the atomic clock stability measurements. The dark matter is assumed to exist in a form of waves of ultralight scalar fields or in a form of topological defects (monopoles and strings). We identify dark matter signal signatures in clock Allan deviation plots that can be used to constrain the dark matter coupling to the Standard Model fields. The existing data on the Al+/Hg+ clock comparison are used to put new limits on the dilaton dark matter in the region of masses m > 10^{-15} eV. We also estimate the sensitivities of future atomic clock experiments in space, including the cesium microwave and strontium optical clocks aboard the International Space Station, as well as a potential nuclear clock. These experiments are expected to put new limits on the topological dark matter in the range of masses 10^{-10} eV < m < 10^{-6} eV.

A clock network for geodesy and fundamental science.

Leveraging the unrivalled performance of optical clocks as key tools for geo-science, for astronomy and for fundamental physics beyond the standard model requires comparing the frequency of distant optical clocks faithfully. Here, we report on the comparison and agreement of two strontium optical clocks at an uncertainty of 5 × 10−17 via a newly established phase-coherent frequency link connecting Paris and Braunschweig using 1,415 km of telecom fibre. The remote comparison is limited only by the instability and uncertainty of the strontium lattice clocks themselves, with negligible contributions from the optical frequency transfer. A fractional precision of 3 × 10−17 is reached after only 1,000 s averaging time, which is already 10 times better and more than four orders of magnitude faster than any previous long-distance clock comparison. The capability of performing high resolution international clock comparisons paves the way for a redefinition of the unit of time and an all-optical dissemination of the SI-second.

Continuous-wave and actively Q-switched Nd:LSO crystal lasers

With a fiber coupled laser diode array as the pump source, Nd-doped Lu2SiO5 (Nd:LSO) crystal lasers at 4F3/2→4I11/2 and 4F3/2→4I13/2 transitions were demonstrated. The active Q-switched dual-wavelength lasers at about 1.08 μm, as well as continuous-wave (CW) and active Q-switched lasers at 1357 nm are reported for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. Considering the small emission cross-sections and long fluorescence lifetime, this material possesses large energy storage ability and excellent Q-switched properties. The special emission wavelength at 1357 nm will have promising applications to be used in many fields, such as THz generation, pumping of Cr3+:LiSAF, repumping of strontium optical clock, laser Doppler velocimeter and distributed fiber sensor.