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Journal of Physics Communications

Fluorescence double resonance optical pumping spectrum and its application for frequency stabilization in millimeter scale vapor cells

Eliran Talker, Liron Stern, Alex Naiman, Yefim Barash, Uriel Levy

Published Oct 16, 2017• 6 citations

Abstract

In recent years, we are observing substantial efforts towards the miniaturization of atomic cells to a millimeter scale and below, with the ultimate goal of enabling efficient and compact light vapor interactions. However, such miniaturization results in a reduction in optical path, effectively reducing the contrast of the optical signal. In order to overcome this obstacle, we have introduced and demonstrated a new approach of fluorescence double resonance optical pumping (FDROP) in the ladder-type atomic system. We have developed a theoretical model to predict the FDROP spectrum and validated this model using experimental results in a millimeter-size cell. We show that the contrast of fluorescence signal of the FDROP approach is higher than the transmission signal in the double resonance optical pumping approach. Taking advantage of this desired property, we have used the FDROP for the purpose of stabilizing the frequency of a laser operating at the telecom waveband with the hyperfine structure of the 5P 3/2 –4D 5/2 transition in a millimeter-size cell. By beating the stabilized laser to another stabilized laser, we obtained frequency instability floor of 9 × 10 −10 at around 1000 s in terms of Allan deviation. Such sources which are stabilized to miniaturized cells may play an important building block in diverse fields ranging e.g. from communication to metrology.

DOI: 10.1088/2399-6528/aa9396

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Abstract We present a laser frequency locking scheme for the high excited transition of rubidium, which cannot be directly referenced by atomic absorption spectroscopy. Double resonance optical pumping spectroscopy and two-photon transition spectroscopy of a 5 S → 5 P → 5 D transition are obtained in a room temperature vapor cell and employed as the reference sources. An Allan deviation of 1.71 × 10 −12 at an averaging time of 2048 s with a residual frequency fluctuation of ±0.2 MHz over 7000 s is obtained by two-photon transition spectroscopy. The case of double resonance optical pumping spectroscopy presents an Allan deviation of 4.86 × 10 −12 at an averaging time of 2048 s with a residual frequency fluctuation of ±0.4 MHz over 7000 s. One distinct advantage of two-photon transition spectroscopy method is demonstrated by the analysis of the fast Fourier transform of error signal. A narrower full width at half-maximum of two-photon transition spectroscopy and a higher zero crossing slope by using a frequency modulation method lead to a better frequency stabilization. This work provides a technical basis for the laser frequency stabilization based on atomic and molecular transition spectroscopy, and it also supplies a new frequency standard for optical telecommunication applications.

Two schemes of Doppler-free high-resolution velocity-selective optical-pumping atomic spectroscopy, named single-resonance optical pumping (SROP) and double-resonance optical pumping (DROP), are performed and characterized with room-temperature cesium vapor cells. Due to velocity-selective optical pumping from one hyperfine fold of ground state to another via one-photon excitation in SROP or cascade two-photon excitation in DROP and decay processes thereafter, the atomic population variation of one hyperfine fold of ground state is indicated by SROP and DROP spectra by using of the transmission of the probe laser which is usually frequency locked to a cycling hyperfine transition. As a result, SROP and DROP spectra often have flat background and higher signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore, SROP and DROP spectra are very useful for measurement of the dressed-state splitting of ground state with an alkali atomic vapor cell, precise measurement of hyperfine splitting of alkali atomic excited states, frequency references for laser frequency stabilization, two-color MOT, and so on.

The frequency stabilization of a laser diode in the 1.3 microm region using double resonance optical pumping (DROP) spectrum in the 5P(3/2)-6S(1/2) transition of (87)Rb atoms is demonstrated. The signal-to-noise ratio of the DROP spectrum is approximately ten times higher than that of the previous optical-optical double resonance spectrum. The spectral linewidth of the DROP measures 8.4 MHz. When the frequency of a 1.367 microm laser diode is stabilized to the DROP spectrum, the frequency stability is 9 x 10(-12) after 100 s. Also, the wavelength of the frequency-stabilized laser locked to the 5P(3/2)-6S(1/2) transition using a wavelength meter is measured.

In this work, we address the issue of the suitability of blue fluorescent light as a frequency offset reference during the ladder-level excitation 5S1/2→5P3/2→5D3/2 of Rb85 atoms. A simple pump–probe spectroscopy experiment is performed to generate non-degenerate blue light emission produced by the spontaneous decay route 5D3/2→6P3/2→5S1/2. By varying the relative intensity of the pump–probe combination, we can hover between regimes dominated by mechanisms such as double resonance optical pumping (DROP) and Autler–Townes splitting. The efficacy of the blue fluorescence (420 nm) as a frequency offset reference is pronounced under the DROP regime due to its narrow (∼natural) linewidth. To provide further insight into the stability performance, the pump laser connecting the 5P3/2→5D3/2 transition is stabilized to the peak of the blue light with the help of a probe stabilized to the saturation absorption signal of the 5S1/2→5P3/2 transition. For this purpose, we used the coherence-induced modulation transfer technique. The error frequency noise power spectra and the subsequent Allan variance calculation clearly show that probe fluctuations are transferred to the pump laser because of an existing two-photon coherent coupling.

We report on the atomic spectroscopy and laser frequency stabilization using a new type of a miniaturized glass vapor cell with a scalable thickness varying from 500 nm up to 8 μm. The cell is fabricated by lithography and etching techniques in a Pyrex glass substrate, followed by anodic bonding. It is filled with rubidium vapor using a distillation procedure. This simple and cost-effective fabrication method provides an attractive and compact solution for atomic cells, with applications in quantum metrology, sensing, communication, and light-vapor manipulations at the subwavelength scale. Using the fabricated cell, we have performed fluorescence and transmission spectroscopy of the Rubidium D2 line and observed sub-Doppler broadened lines. As an example, for a potential application, we have used the fabricated cell to demonstrate the stabilization of a 780 nm diode laser to the level about 10−10 in fractional frequency.