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Applied Physics B

Stabilizing diode laser to 1 Hz-level Allan deviation with atomic spectroscopy for Rb four-level active optical frequency standard

Pengyuan Chang, Shengnan Zhang, Haosen Shang, Jingbiao Chen

Published Oct 4, 2019• 38 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We achieve a compact ultra-stable 420 nm blue diode laser system by immediately stabilizing the laser on the hyperfine transition line of Rb atom. The Allan deviation of the residual error signal reaches 1 Hz-level Allan deviation within 1 s averaging time, and the fractional frequency Allan deviation is $$1.4\times 10^{-15}/\sqrt{\tau }$$ 1.4 × 10 - 15 / τ , which shows the best result of frequency-stabilized lasers based on the atomic spectroscopy without Pound–Drever–Hall (PDH) system. The signal-to-noise ratio of the atomic spectroscopy is evaluated to be 3,000,000 from the Allan deviation formula, which is the highest record, to the best of our knowledge. The frequency noise suppression characterization is demonstrated and the maximal noise suppression can be near 40 dB at 6 Hz. As a good candidate of pumping source, the ultra-stable 420 nm diode laser is successfully used in our Rb four-level active optical frequency standard system. The method can be easily extended to other wavelengths ultra-stable lasers with a Allan deviation of $$10^{-15}$$ 10 - 15 level retaining an atomic reference with low cost and low complexity while in the absence of an expensive and complicated PDH system.

DOI
10.1007/s00340-019-7313-x

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Abstract We achieve a compact ultra-stable 420 nm blue diode laser system by immediately stabilizing the laser on the hyperfine transition line of Rb atom. The Allan deviation of the residual error signal reaches 1 Hz-level Allan deviation within 1 s averaging time, and the fractional frequency Allan deviation is 1.4×10−15/τ1.4\times 10^{-15}/\sqrt{\tau }1.4×10−15/τ​ 1.4 × 10 - 15 / τ , which shows the best result of frequency-stabilized lasers based on the atomic spectroscopy without Pound–Drever–Hall (PDH) system. The signal-to-noise ratio of the atomic spectroscopy is evaluated to be 3,000,000 from the Allan deviation formula, which is the highest record, to the best of our knowledge. The frequency noise suppression characterization is demonstrated and the maximal noise suppression can be near 40 dB at 6 Hz. As a good candidate of pumping source, the ultra-stable 420 nm diode laser is successfully used in our Rb four-level active optical frequency standard system. The method can be easily extended to other wavelengths ultra-stable lasers with a Allan deviation of 10−1510^{-15}10−15 10 - 15 level retaining an atomic reference with low cost and low complexity while in the absence of an expensive and complicated PDH system.
We achieved a low-cost and small-sized Rb optical frequency standard based on 85Rb 5S1/2 → 6P3/2 transition with 10−15 stability, which is comparable with that of the best 532 nm I2 optical frequency standards. In this system, we directly lock the 420 nm diode laser on the 5S1/2 F = 3 → 6P3/2 F′ = 4 hyperfine transition line without an additional Pound-Drever-Hall pre-locking system. The signal-to-noise-ratio reaches as high as 350 000 when the averaging time is at 1 s. Eventually by the fluctuation of the residual error signal after locking, the preliminary stability of the optical frequency standard reaches 1.2×10−14/τ, decreasing to 2.1 × 10−15 at 80 s. It shows potential in stability performance, experimental cost, and system volume compared with the 532 nm I2 optical frequency standard as a wavelength standard. It also opens a door for the achievement of wavelength standards by using higher excited states of alkalies.
We present a scheme for stabilizing multiple lasers at wavelengths between 795 and 866 nm to the same atomic reference line. A reference laser at 852 nm is stabilized to the Cs D 2 line using a Doppler-free frequency modulation technique. Through transfer cavities, four lasers are stabilized to the relevant atomic transitions in 40 Ca + . The rms linewidth of a transfer-locked laser is measured to be 123 kHz over 200 ms with respect to an independent atomic reference, the Rb D 1 line. This stability is confirmed by the comparison of an excitation spectrum of a single 40 Ca + ion to an eight-level Bloch equation model. The long-term stability with respect to the same reference is measured to be 130 kHz over a period of 2 h. The high degree of stability is demonstrated by the measured Allan deviation around 10 −11 between 1 and 100 s.
We have proposed an artificial modulation-free Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) method for laser frequency stabilization and demonstrated it via two-color polarization spectroscopy of Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) resonance in a room-temperature rubidium vapor. Due to the unique error signal profile, the conventional PDH method owns a large capture range in laser frequency locking. Here we manually construct a PDH error signal via a linear combination of polarization spectroscopies of the Rydberg EIT resonances without and with a magnetic field applied. The artificial modulation-free PDH error signal owns a subnatural linewidth dispersion curve as well as a large capture range with which we successfully stabilize the laser to an absolute atomic frequency reference in a long running time, immune to environmental fluctuation and even manmade impulse perturbation. This method can provide an absolute frequency reference based on atomic transition while keeping similar locking ability to provide corrections for frequency fluctuations over a broad bandwidth as the conventional PDH.
We demonstrate an optical frequency standard by locking the output frequency of an external cavity diode laser to the 780 nm D2 transition of diffuse laser cooled 87Rb atoms using frequency modulation spectroscopy (FMS). A 50-cm-long cold atomic cloud is obtained within a ϕ 2 cm ×l 50 cm vacuum glass tube, featuring greater simplicity and reliability. By analyzing the impact of power and detuning of cooling and repumping lasers, and power of frequency-modulated laser on FMS based on cold atoms, we choose the optimal parameter and lock the laser frequency to the 87Rb 52S1/2 (F = 2) → 52P3/2 (F′ = 3) cycling transition. The cold-atom-based optical frequency standard achieves an in-loop frequency stability of 3.3 × 10−15 at 1 s, with peak-to-peak frequency fluctuations being less than 50 Hz within 6000 s. This represents the integration of cold atoms into an optical frequency standard utilizing FMS for frequency stabilization. In contrast to the common cold-atom optical frequency standards, our approach requires fewer lasers and eliminates the need for a complex and expensive Pound–Drever–Hall (PDH) system. Its low complexity makes it a promising candidate for development into a space cold-atom clock, promoting advancements in space science and navigational positioning. Additionally, it possesses great potential to serve as an absolute wavelength standard.
Lasers with high spectral purity are indispensable for optical clocks and for the coherent manipulation of atomic and molecular qubits in applications such as quantum computing and quantum simulation. While the stabilization of such lasers to a reference can provide a narrow linewidth, the widely used diode lasers exhibit fast phase noise that prevents high-fidelity qubit manipulation. In this paper, we demonstrate a self-injection locked diode laser system that utilizes a high-finesse cavity. This cavity not only provides a stable resonance frequency, it also acts as a low-pass filter for phase noise beyond the cavity linewidth of around 100 kHz, resulting in low phase noise from dc to the injection lock limit. We model the expected laser performance and benchmark it using a single trapped 40 Ca + -ion as a spectrum analyzer. We show that the fast phase noise of the laser at relevant Fourier frequencies of 100 kHz to >2 MHz is suppressed to a noise floor of between −110 dBc/Hz and −120 dBc/Hz, an improvement of 20 to 30 dB over state-of-the-art Pound-Drever-Hall-stabilized extended-cavity diode lasers. This strong suppression avoids incoherent (spurious) spin flips during manipulation of optical qubits and improves laser-driven gates when using diode lasers in applications involving quantum logic spectroscopy, quantum simulation, and quantum computation.
Lasers with high spectral purity are indispensable for optical clocks and coherent manipulation of atomic and molecular qubits for applications such as quantum computing and quantum simulation. Stabilisation of the laser to a reference can provide a narrow linewidth and high spectral purity. However, widely-used diode lasers exhibit fast phase noise that prevents high fidelity qubit manipulation. Here we demonstrate a self-injection locked diode laser system utilizing a medium finesse cavity. The cavity not only provides a stable resonance frequency, but at the same time acts as a low-pass filter for phase noise beyond the cavity linewidth of around 100 kHz, resulting in low phase noise from dc to the injection lock limit. We model the expected laser performance and benchmark it using a single trapped 40^{40}40Ca+^{+}+-ion as a spectrum analyser. We show that the fast phase noise of the laser at relevant Fourier frequencies of 100 kHz to >2 MHz is suppressed to a noise floor of between -110 dBc/Hz and -120 dBc/Hz, an improvement of 20 to 30 dB over state-of-the-art Pound-Drever-Hall-stabilized extended-cavity diode lasers. This strong suppression avoids incoherent (spurious) spin flips during manipulation of optical qubits and improves laser-driven gates in using diode lasers with applications in quantum logic spectroscopy, quantum simulation and quantum computation.