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arXiv:2603.11817 · SciPost Physics Core

Temperature-insensitive tunable and stable Fabry-Perot cavity for atomic physics

Joshua Ruelle, Martin Hauden, F. Ponciano-Ojeda, Marion Delehaye

Published Sep 1, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Optical Fabry-Perot cavities are crucial tools for metrology experiments, where they achieve extreme length stability and now can serve as highly proficient references for probing fine atomic transitions. For some atomic physics experiments however, tunability of the system to atomic transitions enables atom-light interactions. Achieving both frequency stability and tunability in a single cavity has remained a challenge, forcing metrology experiments exploiting atom-cavity interactions to rely on external active feedback systems to stabilize the length of the cavity. Here, we describe a piezoelectrically-tunable cavity with a cancellation of the coefficient of thermal expansion at around 5^\circ\mathrm{C} 5 ∘ C , achieving a fractional frequency instability of 4× 10^{-13} 4 × 10 − 13 level for 1 s integration time. This advance eliminates the need for external stabilization in many atom-cavity experiments, making this design ideal for applications such as ultra-stable superradiant lasers and other cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments.

DOI
10.21468/scipostphyscore.9.3.054

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Optical Fabry-Perot cavities are crucial tools for metrology experiments, where they achieve extreme length stability and now can serve as highly proficient references for probing fine atomic transitions. For some atomic physics experiments however, tunability of the system to atomic transitions enables atom-light interactions. Achieving both frequency stability and tunability in a single cavity has remained a challenge, forcing metrology experiments exploiting atom-cavity interactions to rely on external active feedback systems to stabilize the length of the cavity. Here, we describe a piezoelectrically-tunable cavity with a cancellation of the coefficient of thermal expansion at around 5^\circ\mathrm{C} 5 ∘ C , achieving a fractional frequency instability of 4× 10^{-13} 4 × 10 − 13 level for 1 s integration time. This advance eliminates the need for external stabilization in many atom-cavity experiments, making this design ideal for applications such as ultra-stable superradiant lasers and other cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments.
SummaryActive optical atomic clocks are emerging as a new promising tool for time and frequency metrology. Such clocks have the potential to reach a fractional frequency instability in the 10-18range at one second [1]. These references are based on the superradiant emission of an ensemble of atoms coupled to a single mode of the electromagnetic field [2]. For optical references, this coupling is achieved through a resonant high-finesse Fabry-Perot cavity that therefore plays a crucial role to reach superradiant lasing. Specific characteristics are required to permit superradiant emission in a metrologically relevant regime: tunability of the cavity resonant frequency, ability to accommodate atoms and low fractional length fluctuations, in the order of 10-13. This work shows the conception, through simulation, assembly and preliminary characterization of this Fabry Perot cavity.
We describe the design and operation of a high-stability Fabry-Pérot cavity, for laser stabilization in cavity quantum-electrodynamics experiments. Our design is based on an inexpensive and readily available uniaxial carbon-fiber reinforced polymer tube spacer, featuring an ultra-low thermal expansion coefficient. As a result, our 136 mm-long cavity, which has a finesse of 5160, shows a coefficient of thermal expansion of 1.6 × 10-6 K-1. Enclosing it in a hermetic chamber at room-pressure and using simple temperature stabilization, we observe absolute frequency excursions over a full day below 50 MHz for a laser operating at 446.785 THz. The frequency stability is limited by the imperfect thermal isolation from the environment and can be corrected using a built-in piezoelectric actuator. In addition, we discuss a different variant of this design and identify future improvements. Our system provides a cost-effective and robust solution for transferring laser stability over different wavelengths, as well as for linewidth reduction or spectral filtering of CW laser sources for applications in quantum science.
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We describe the design and operation of a high-stability Fabry-Perot cavity, for laser stabilization in cavity quantum-electrodynamics experiments. Our design is based on an inexpensive and readily available uniaxial carbon-fiber reinforced polymer tube spacer, featuring an ultra-low thermal expansion coefficient. As a result, our 136mm136\mathrm{mm}136mm-long cavity, which has a finesse of 5160{5160}5160, shows a coefficient of thermal expansion of 1.6×10−6 K−11.6 \times 10^{-6}~\mathrm{K}^{-1}1.6×10−6 K−1. Enclosing it in a hermetic chamber at room-pressure and using a simple temperature stabilization, we observe absolute frequency excursions over a full day below 50 MHz50~\mathrm{MHz}50 MHz for a laser operating at 446.785THz446.785\mathrm{THz}446.785THz. The frequency stability is limited by the imperfect thermal isolation from the environment and can be corrected using a built-in piezo-electric actuator. In addition, we discuss a different variant of this design and identify future improvements. Our system provides a cost-effective and robust solution for transferring laser stability over different wavelengths, as well as for linewidth reduction or spectral filtering of CW laser sources for applications in quantum science.
Ultra stable frequency references such as the ones used in optical atomic clocks and for quantum metrology may be obtained by stabilizing a laser to an optical cavity that is stable over time. State-of-the-art frequency references are constructed in this way, but their stabilities are currently limited by thermally induced length fluctuations in the reference cavity. Several alternative approaches using the potential for frequency discriminating of highly forbidden narrow atomic transitions have been proposed in, e.g., [1] and [2]. In this proceeding we will present some of the ongoing experimental efforts derived from these proposals, to use cavity-enhanced interaction with atomic 88 Sr samples as a frequency reference for laser stabilization. Such systems can be realized using both passive and active approaches where either the atomic phase response is used as an error signal, or the narrow atomic transition itself is used as a source for a spectrally pure laser. Both approaches shows the promise of being able to compete with the current state of the art in stable lasers and have similar limitations on their ultimately achievable linewidths [1, 2].
Abstract We present a stabilization technique developed to lock and dynamically tune the resonant frequency of a moderate finesse Fabry-Pérot (FP) cavity used in precision atom-cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) experiments. Most experimental setups with active stabilization either operate at one fixed resonant frequency or use transfer cavities to achieve the ability to tune the resonant frequency of the cavity. In this work, we present a simple and cost-effective solution to actively stabilize an optical cavity while achieving a dynamic tuning range of over 100 MHz with a precision under 1 MHz. Our unique scheme uses a reference laser locked to an electro-optic modulator (EOM) shifted saturation absorption spectroscopy (SAS) signal. The cavity is locked to the PDH error signal obtained from the dip in the reflected intensity of this reference laser. Our setup provides the feature to efficiently tune the resonant frequency of the cavity by only changing the EOM drive without unlocking and re-locking either the reference laser or the cavity. We present measurements of precision control of the resonant cavity frequency and vacuum Rabi splitting (VRS) to quantify the stability achieved and hence show that this technique is suitable for a variety of cavity QED experiments.