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A narrow linewidth diode laser system for strontium laser cooling applications

Sarah Nagel

Published Jan 1, 2004• 1 citation
OpenAlex

Abstract

The diode laser system for laser cooling on the 1S 0 → 3P1 intercombination line of strontium discussed in this thesis allows us to cool and trap an atomic strontium sample to 15 muK. Samples in this temperature range are useful for the development of the next generation of atomic frequency standards, cold collision studies, and as a step towards quantum degeneracy. This laser system consists of a Littrow configuration external-cavity diode laser, which is frequency locked to a high finesse cavity. The cavity is subsequently locked to an absorption feature to produce a few mW of tunable, stabilized, single mode power at the target wavelength. We present the design and characterization of this system, including a linewidth measurement of 70 kHz, as well as preliminary results from cooling and trapping.

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The diode laser system for laser cooling on the 1S 0 → 3P1 intercombination line of strontium discussed in this thesis allows us to cool and trap an atomic strontium sample to 15 muK. Samples in this temperature range are useful for the development of the next generation of atomic frequency standards, cold collision studies, and as a step towards quantum degeneracy. This laser system consists of a Littrow configuration external-cavity diode laser, which is frequency locked to a high finesse cavity. The cavity is subsequently locked to an absorption feature to produce a few mW of tunable, stabilized, single mode power at the target wavelength. We present the design and characterization of this system, including a linewidth measurement of 70 kHz, as well as preliminary results from cooling and trapping.
Abstract The realization of compact high-power narrow-linewidth laser sources in the visible range has been a long-standing interest for the atomic physics community, especially in the field of laser cooling and trapping of alkaline-earth and alkaline-earth-like atoms. We report a simple master-slave injection-locked laser system capable of generating 500 mW at 460.86 nm with a linewidth of 1.6 MHz to realize magneto-optical trapping of strontium atoms on the 5s2 1S0−5s5p 1P15s^{2} \ ^{1}\mathrm {S}_{0}-5s5p \ ^{1}\mathrm {P}_{1}5s2 1S0​−5s5p 1P1​ 5 s 2 1 S 0 - 5 s 5 p 1 P 1 transition. The master laser used is an external cavity diode laser built with an anti-reflection coated laser diode in a Littrow configuration and the slave laser is built with a recently launched single mode high power GaN laser diode. We characterized the frequency noise, injection stability, spectral purity and relative intensity noise of the laser system. The reported laser system is used routinely to produce 10710^7107 10 7 strontium atoms at a temperature of 10 mK in a magneto-optical trap. The laser system offers a prominent alternative to the existing frequency-doubled laser systems in terms of cost, design flexibility, electrical power consumption, ease of scaling, intensity stability, and frequency tunability. The proposed system is also an effective solution for space-based experiments where a laser system’s size, weight, and electrical power consumption are crucial design parameters.
We report on our progress toward the realization of an optical frequency standard referenced to strontium intercombination lines. While first frequency measurement of the weakly allowed 1S 0- 3P 1 transition was done with saturation spectroscopy on a thermal beam, we are preparing the experimental setup for high resolution spectroscopy on ultracold atoms of the doubly forbidden 1S 0- 3P 0 line. Our current setup allows the capture more than 10 7 atoms at 1 μK in 500 ms in two stages of magneto-optical trapping. We also demonstrated the dipole trapping of ultracold strontium isotopes for accurate spectroscopy and collisional measurements. A semiconductor laser source at 698 nm has already been locked to a pre-stabilization cavity obtaining a fast linewidth of less than 1 kHz. Second stage stabilization of the clock laser to ultra-high finesse cavity is in development. Recent measurement of elastic and inelastic cross-sections of the two most abundant 88Sr and 86Sr isotopes are also presented.
We have built an external-cavity ultraviolet diode laser at 397 nm for Ca+ spectroscopy. The laser consists of a commercial ultraviolet diode laser and a holographic grating in the Littrow configuration. Stable single-mode operation with a power of 3 mW, a linewidth no larger than 2 MHz, and a mode-hop-free frequency scanning range of 15 GHz was achieved. This laser was used to cool a small number of Ca+ in a rf trap. The ions were cooled to a low temperature to form a crystallized state. The use of the laser will simplify experimental setups for diverse applications of Ca+, such as frequency standards, quantum computers and one-atom lasers.
This thesis describes the design, construction and characterization of an external cavity diode laser (ECDL) within the context of AMO research – specifically, ultracold rubidium experiments. The main benefit over other forms of laser light is the ECDL’s low cost and narrow linewidth. Having a more narrow linewidth allows us to affect specific electron states, such as for laser cooling, more precisely than broader alternatives. We find that building such a laser in house is feasible with scan range up to 4 GHz. We also note that attention to external noise, through mechanical vibrations but more importantly through temperature drifts, is necessary to produce an ECDL with a stable optical frequency.
We report recent progress in sub-kHz-linewidth operation of AlGaInP-based SDL systems designed for neutral Strontium optical clocks. Overall system performance is presented, including intensity, frequency and phase noise characterisation. Two almost identical SDLs, each with >150 mW output at 689 nm, were frequency locked and an optical beat note measurement produced a linewidth of 160 Hz with fractional frequency stability reaching below 2×〖10〗^(-15) for averaging times from 60-400 s. Spectroscopic measurements of a blue magneto-optical trap (MOT) of Strontium with one SDL resulted in a reduction of the atomic sample fluorescence and revealed Zeeman splitting of the 3P1 electronic level.