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Applied Physics Letters

A FIELD-INDEPENDENT OPTICALLY PUMPED 85Rb MASER OSCILLATOR

W. A. Stern, Robert Novick

Published Sep 1, 1970• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Oscillation is reported in an optically pumped 85Rb maser operating on the magnetic-field-independent ground-state hyperfine transition (3035.73…MHz). A power output of 8×10−10 W was observed. Frequency shifts due to buffer gas were measured. Light and cavity shifts were also observed.
DOI
10.1063/1.1653371

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Light and Buffer-Gas Frequency Shifts in the 85Rb-Maser Frequency Standard

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Recently we reported the operation of an optically pumped 85Rb maser oscillating at 3.035734 GHz on the field-independent transition 52S1/2(F = 3, mF = 0 → F = 2, mF = 0) [1]. Apart from cavity pulling, the two major sources of frequency shifts are those due to the buffer gas and the pumping light. The short-term phase stability of the standard is not appreciably affected by these shifts. The buffer-gas shift can be used to advantage to select an output frequency that is different from the ground-state hyperfine frequency.

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•Aug 1, 1984•0 citations
Recently we reported the operation of an optically pumped 85Rb maser oscillating at 3.035734 GHz on the field-independent transition 52S1/2(F = 3, mF = 0 → F = 2, mF = 0) [1]. Apart from cavity pulling, the two major sources of frequency shifts are those due to the buffer gas and the pumping light. The short-term phase stability of the standard is not appreciably affected by these shifts. The buffer-gas shift can be used to advantage to select an output frequency that is different from the ground-state hyperfine frequency.
We report the operation of a 87^{87}87Rb maser in the self-oscillating mode, using a laser diode as the optical pumping source. The maser uses a TE021_{021}021​ cavity surrounding a cell containing the atoms and 11 Torr of N2_{2}2​ as the buffer gas. The optical pumping is accomplished by using a commercial laser diode frequency-locked on the linear absorption line of an external rubidium cell. The maser output power is maximized when the laser spectrum is spread by modulating its frequency through the variation of its injection current. The maser output power is also presented for various modulation waveforms and frequencies. We find that the spurious sidebands induced by the modulation can be minimized. Finally, the linear dependence between the laser and maser frequencies is shown. We find that the relative maser frequency pulling from the laser is about 4.6×10−34.6 \times 10^{-3}4.6×10−3.
We describe a simple method to produce a clock transition with purely optical means through modulated pumping. We observe the field-independent ground state resonance of 87Rb atoms using sinusoidal modulation of the injection current of an AlGaAs laser diode emitting at 780 nm (FM modulation). We detect the 6.835 GHz resonance with a modulation frequency of 1.139 GHz. A high contrast resonance peak is observed and a condition for zero light shift is found. With a beam radius of approximately 3 mm and a buffer gas (N2) pressure of 680 Pa (5.1 Torr), a minimal linewidth of 290 Hz is observed. A theoretical study of the excitation of hyperfine coherences by a modulated laser beam is given.
We report observing Raman-shifted oscillation within a ring cavity containing cesium vapor and pumped with the output of a single-frequency diode laser tuned near the D2 line. The oscillation is shifted from the diode-laser pump frequency by ≃9 GHz, the hyperfine splitting of the 6S1/2 ground state of cesium. Many different transverse modes of oscillation are observed for slight variations in the cavity alignment. In addition, the oscillation is observed to turn on and off at 60 Hz as a result of the pump-frequency fluctuations associated with the line noise on the diode-laser drive current. The pump-frequency fluctuations (≃10 MHz) are small compared with the free spectral range (175 MHz) of the ring cavity. These characteristics indicate that the Raman oscillation in cesium vapor is narrow-band, similar to the behavior observed in sodium vapor.1–3 As little as 30 mW of pump power is required for oscillation when highly reflective cavity optics are used. We have obtained 0.5 mW of Raman-shifted output with an appropriate output coupler at 65 mW of pump power.
The linewidth and frequency associated with the ground state hyperfine energy fo Rb 87 has been studied. A stable single mode semiconductor laser is used to optically pump Rb, in order to obtain a highly collimated, monochromatic light source. The laser is stabilized by locking its optical frequency to the Rb absorption line center. The dependence of the hyperfine frequency and resonance linewidth have been measured as a function of temperature, light intensity and microwave power; and a theoretical description of the linewidth vs. temperature data is presented. Keywords: Optical pumping; Rubidium; Frequency standard; Frequency shift; Light shift; Density matrix; Buffer gas; Linewidth; and Magnetic resonance.