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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 53: Poster: Quantum Optics and Photonics III
Q 53.40: Poster
Thursday, March 9, 2017, 17:00–19:00, P OG2
Ultra-stable laser for a magnesium lattice clock — •Steffen Sauer, Steffen Rühmann, Dominka Fim, Klaus Zipfel, Nandan Jha, Waldemar Friesen, Pia Koopmann, Wolfgang Ertmer, and Ernst M. Rasel — Institut für Quantenoptik, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Deutschland
One of the key elements for an optical frequency standard are ultra-stable lasers for probing narrow optical transitions. At IQ in Hanover, we are working towards development of an optical lattice clock based on bosonic magnesium 1. In such clocks the atoms are trapped in optical lattices enabling Doppler- and recoil-free spectroscopy. This sets stringent requirements on the short term stability of the clock lasers performing the spectroscopy.
We report on the progress and performance of our ultra-stable laser system and its distribution to the interrogation chamber. The laser system interrogating the clock transition consists of a diode laser system at 916 nm stabilized to a high finesse cavity isolated from environmental perturbations. The light is transmitted via a 30 m long fiber to a second-harmonic generator (SHG) and frequency doubled to the clock transition wavelength at 458 nm. To suppress the frequency fluctuations induced by this 30 m long fiber, we have implemented an active fiber length stabilization system. Afterwards frequency doubled light is fed via another stabilized fiber to the atoms. Following various improvements we achieve an instability of 4× 10−16 in 1 s for the laser itself, which is close to the calculated thermal noise floor level.
1 Kulosa et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 240801 (2015)