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arXiv:2006.12012

Laser stabilisation to neutral Yb in a discharge with polarization enhanced frequency modulation spectroscopy

Valdis Blūms, Jordan Scarabel, Kenji Shimizu, Moji Ghadimi, Steven Connell, S. Händel, B. G. Norton, Elizabeth M. Bridge, D. Kielpinski, Mirko Lobino, Erik W. Streed

Published Jun 22, 2020• 0 citations

Abstract

Isotope selective optical excitation of atoms is important for experiments with neutral atoms, metrology, and work with trapped ions, including quantum information processing. Polarization-enhanced absorption spectroscopy is used to frequency stabilise a tunable external cavity laser diode system at 398.9 nm for isotope selective photoionization of neutral Yb atoms. This spectroscopy technique is used to measure isotope resolved dispersive features from transitions within a see through configuration Ytterbium hollow-cathode discharge lamp. This Doppler-free dichroic polarization spectroscopy is realised by retro-reflecting a laser beam through the discharge and analysing the polarization dependent absorption with balanced detection. The spectroscopy signal is recovered using lock-in detection of frequency modulation induced by current modulation of the external cavity laser diode. Here, we show the use of polarization-enhanced absorption spectroscopy for isotope selectively loading of $^{171}$Yb$^+$, $^{172}$Yb$^+$, or $^{174}$Yb$^+$ ions into an RF Paul trap.

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2006.12012

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Isotope selective optical excitation of atoms is important for experiments with neutral atoms, metrology, and work with trapped ions, including quantum information processing. Polarization-enhanced absorption spectroscopy is used to frequency stabilise a tunable external cavity laser diode system at 398.9 nm for isotope selective photoionization of neutral Yb atoms. This spectroscopy technique is used to measure isotope resolved dispersive features from transitions within a see through configuration Ytterbium hollow-cathode discharge lamp. This Doppler-free dichroic polarization spectroscopy is realised by retro-reflecting a laser beam through the discharge and analysing the polarization dependent absorption with balanced detection. The spectroscopy signal is recovered using lock-in detection of frequency modulation induced by current modulation of the external cavity laser diode. Here, we show the use of polarization-enhanced absorption spectroscopy for isotope selectively loading of

^{171}

Yb

^+

,

^{172}

Yb

^+

, or

^{174}

Yb

^+

ions into an RF Paul trap.

We demonstrate stabilization of an ultraviolet diode laser via Doppler-free spectroscopy of Ytterbium ions in a discharge. Our technique employs polarization spectroscopy, which produces a natural dispersive lineshape whose zero-crossing is largely immune to environmental drifts, making this signal an ideal absolute frequency reference for Yb+ ion trapping experiments. We stabilize an external-cavity diode laser near 369 nm for cooling Yb+ ions, using amplitude modulated polarization spectroscopy and a commercial PID feedback system. We achieve stable, low-drift locking with a standard deviation of measured laser frequency ∼ 400 kHz over 10 minutes, limited by the instantaneous linewidth of the diode laser. These results and the simplicity of our optical setup makes our approach attractive for stabilization of laser sources in atomic physics applications.

We stabilize an ultraviolet diode laser system at 369.5 nm to the optical absorption signal from Yb+ ions in a hollow-cathode discharge lamp. The error signal for stabilization is obtained by Zeeman spectroscopy of the 3 GHz wide absorption feature. The frequency stability is independently measured by comparison to the fluorescence signal from a laser-cooled crystal of Y174b+ ions in a linear Paul trap. We measure a frequency fluctuation of 1.7 MHz over 1000 s and a frequency drift of 20 MHz over 7 days. Our method is suitable for use in quantum information processing experiments with trapped ion crystals.

We have demonstrated simultaneous laser frequency stabilization of a UV and IR laser, to coupled transitions of ions in the same spectroscopic sample, by detecting only the absorption of the UV laser. Separate signals for locking the different lasers are obtained by modulating each laser at a different frequency and using lock-in detection of a single photodiode signal. Experimentally, we simultaneously lock a 369 nm and a 935 nm laser to the (2)S(1/2) → (2)(P(1/2) and (2)D(3/2) → (3)D([3/2]1/2) transitions, respectively, of Yb(+) ions generated in a hollow cathode discharge lamp. Stabilized lasers at these frequencies are required for cooling and trapping Yb(+) ions, used in quantum information and in high precision metrology experiments. This technique should be readily applicable to other ion and neutral atom systems requiring multiple stabilized lasers.

We analyze the polarization spectrum of S10−P11 transition in atomic ytterbium with bosonic and fermionic isotopes in a hollow cathode lamp. Bosonic signals are created by saturation effects because of their only nondegenerate ground state, whereas fermionic counterparts are generated by optical pumping. The dependence of spectral signals on the cathode lamp current as well as the powers of the pump and probe beams are systematically investigated. Optimized parameters for future frequency-locking applications are suggested. The effects of pump beam polarization are determined by comparing results obtained from a circularly polarized pump beam to those obtained from an elliptically polarized one; here, enhanced signals were achieved by the former compared with the latter.

The modulation transfer spectroscopy in an ytterbium hollow cathode lamp at 399 nm is measured. The error signal for frequency locking is optimized by measuring the dependences of its slope, linewidth and magnitude on various parameters. Under the optimum condition, the laser frequency at 399 nm can be stabilized. The long-term stability of laser frequency is measured by monitoring the fluorescence signal of the ytterbium atomic beam induced by the locked laser. The laser frequency is shown to be tightly locked, and the stabilized laser is successfully applied to the cooling of ytterbium atoms.

We report the experimental results on measuring the isotope shifts and hyperfine splittings of all ytterbium isotopes for a 399-nm transition by using a quite simple and novel method. It benefits from the advantages of the modulation transfer spectroscopy in an ytterbium hollow cathode lamp and the Doppler-free spectroscopy in a collimated ytterbium atomic beam. The key technique in this experiment is simultaneously measuring the frequency separations of the two spectra twice, and the separation difference between two measurements is solely determined by the well-defined frequency of an acousto-optics modulator. Compared with the most of previously reported experimental results, ours are more accurate and completed, which will provide the useful information for developing a more accurate theoretical model to describe the interaction inside an ytterbium atom.