Transportable interrogation laser system with an instability of mod σy = 3 × 10−16

authored by
Sebastian Häfner, Sofia Herbers, Stefan Vogt, Christian Lisdat, Uwe Sterr
Abstract

We present an interrogation laser system for a transportable strontium lattice clock operating at 698 nm, which is based on an ultra-low-expansion glass reference cavity. Transportability is achieved by implementing a rigid, compact, and vibration insensitive mounting of the 12 cm-long reference cavity, sustaining shocks of up to 50 g. The cavity is mounted at optimized support points that independently constrain all degrees of freedom. This mounting concept is especially beneficial for cavities with a ratio of length L over diameter D L/D > 1. Generally, large L helps to reduce thermal noise-induced laser frequency instability while small D leads to small cavity volume. The frequency instability was evaluated, reaching its thermal noise floor of mod σy ≈ 3 × 10−16 for averaging times between 0.5 s and 10 s. The laser system was successfully operated during several field studies.

External Organisation(s)
National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB)
Nanosystems and Technologies GmbH
Coherent LaserSystems GmbH & Co.KG
Type
Article
Journal
Optics express
Volume
28
Pages
16407-16416
No. of pages
10
ISSN
1094-4087
Publication date
25.05.2020
Publication status
Published
Peer reviewed
Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Electronic version(s)
https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.390105 (Access: Open)