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Optics Express

Differentially detected coherent population trapping resonances excited by orthogonally polarized laser fields

M. Rosenbluh, Vishal Shah, Svenja A. Knappe, John E. Kitching

Published Jan 1, 2006• 36 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate the excitation and low-noise differential detection of a coherent population trapping (CPT) resonance with two modulated optical fields with orthogonal circular polarizations. When a microwave phase delay of lambda/4 is introduced in the optical path of one of the fields, the difference in the power transmitted through the cell in each polarization shows a narrow, dispersive resonance. The differential detection allows a high degree of suppression of laser-induced noise and will enable nearly shot-noise-limited operation of atomic frequency references and magnetometers based on CPT.

DOI
10.1364/oe.14.006588

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We demonstrate the excitation and low-noise differential detection of a coherent population trapping (CPT) resonance with two modulated optical fields with orthogonal circular polarizations. When a microwave phase delay of lambda/4 is introduced in the optical path of one of the fields, the difference in the power transmitted through the cell in each polarization shows a narrow, dispersive resonance. The differential detection allows a high degree of suppression of laser-induced noise and will enable nearly shot-noise-limited operation of atomic frequency references and magnetometers based on CPT.
We present preliminary results showing that some noise sources in vapor cell atomic clocks based on coherent population trapping (CPT) can be suppressed with differential detection. The scheme we propose differs from more conventional differential detection in that both optical fields pass through the alkali vapor cell but have different polarizations, one circular and one linear. Because CPT resonances are only excited by the circularly polarized beam, the linearly polarized beam can be used to reduce several important sources of noise. With this technique, we demonstrate reduction of the short-term frequency instability of a CPT atomic frequency reference by a factor of about 1.5.
A new method to improve the sensitivity and absolute accuracy simultaneously for coherent population trapping (CPT) magnetometer based on the differential detection method is presented. Two modulated optical beams with orthogonal circular polarizations are applied, in one of which two magnetic resonances are excited simultaneously by modulating a 3.4GHz microwave with Larmor frequency. When a microwave frequency shift is introduced, the difference in the power transmitted through the cell in each beam shows a low noise resonance. The sensitivity of 2pT/Hz @ 10Hz is achieved. Meanwhile, the absolute accuracy of ± 0.5nT within the magnetic field ranging from 20000nT to 100000nT is realized.
We demonstrate a new technique for the suppression of noise associated with the laser source in atomic clocks based on coherent population trapping (CPT). The technique uses differential detection of the transmission of linearly and circularly polarized beams that propagate through different parts of a single rubidium vapor cell filled with a buffer gas mixture. The common-mode noise associated with the laser frequency and amplitude noise is suppressed by the differential detection of the two laser beams. The CPT signal, which is present only in the circularly polarized laser beam, is unaffected. The implementation of the technique requires only a change of the polarization of part of the laser beam and an additional photodiode. The technique is simple and applicable to CPT frequency references where a major source of noise is the laser, such as compact and chip-scale devices.
We present a digital differential detection scheme using a single photodiode to suppress the diode laser frequency noise and improve the short-term stability in atomic clocks based on coherent population trapping (CPT) resonance. One laser light is divided into two beams via modulation of an acousto-optic modulator. One beam induces CPT resonance with circularly polarized light, and the other beam induces only absorption with linearly polarized light. A differential algorithm counteracts common-mode noise from the two beams. A stability of 6.86×10−12 at 100 s and 2.26×10−12 at 1000 s has been demonstrated. The short-term stability is improved by a factor of 2.4 at 100 s. The scheme promises to eliminate laser-related noise and explore potential applications in chip-scale atomic clocks.
We report a damped coherent population trapping (CPT) process, which has the very same mechanism as the coherent population beating (CPB). A differential CPB scheme is proposed based on the optical path delay, through which the left- and right-hand circularly polarized lights are modulated with a phase difference of π/2. The CPB signals oscillate with the frequency in a radio frequency (RF) range, which makes the detuning frequency equal to the splitting frequency between the hyperfine energy level of the ground state of cesium. The differential CPB signal with non-zero amplitude is obtained after the two signals being subtracted from each other, thereby improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the CPB. The measurements are explained well with a simple, four-level model and are interpreted as a simple harmonic oscillator interaction with four light fields. The Allan variance of the CPB atomic clock is measured in the conventional and the differential detection configurations. The 1- s stability of the differential CPB scheme is , which is better than that of under the conventional configuration. The results confirm that the differential CPB scheme can improve the signal-to-noise ratio and hence the short-term stability.
We propose and investigate a scheme for differential detection of the magneto-optic rotation (MOR) effect, where a linearly polarized bichromatic laser field is coherent population-trapping (CPT)-resonant with alkali atoms, and discuss the application of this effect to CPT-based atomic clocks. The results of our study indicate that laser noise in a vertical cavity surface-emitting laser-based CPT atomic clock can be effectively suppressed by the proposed scheme. The proposed scheme promises to realize a packaged MOR-CPT atomic clock that has significantly better frequency stability coupled with similar power consumption, volume, and cost when compared with currently available packaged CPT atomic clocks.