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Optical Sensors

Design of the optical system for 171-ytterbium single-ion optical clock

Yani Zuo, Shaoyang Dai, Shiying Cao, Kun Liu, Weiliang Chen, Lei Han, Fangsong ZHENG, Tianchu Li, Fang Fang

Published Apr 15, 2021• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Optical frequency standards based on trapped ions have made great progress over the past decades. In this paper, the design of the optical system for an optical atomic clock based on single 171-ytterbium ion at NIM is proposed. According to the requirements for ionization, cooling, repump, interrogation, and detection, the basic optical system design and frequency stabilization scheme are introduced.

DOI
10.1117/12.2594943

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Optical frequency standards based on trapped ions have made great progress over the past decades. In this paper, the design of the optical system for an optical atomic clock based on single 171-ytterbium ion at NIM is proposed. According to the requirements for ionization, cooling, repump, interrogation, and detection, the basic optical system design and frequency stabilization scheme are introduced.
With the development of optical frequency comb and ultra-stable laser techniques, the performance of optical frequency standards has been improved significantly over the past decades. Single charged Yb ions have an alkali-like atomic structure and have ultra-long storage time. And the ytterbium single-ion optical frequency standards have two clock transitions (E2 & E3). In this paper, we will introduce the progress in the development of a highly accurate optical frequency standard based on single ytterbium-171 ion at the National Institute of Metrology (NIM), China.
SummaryThe optical clock based on trapped ions has attracted great interest due to the important significance in fundamental physics and application prospects in metrology of time and frequency. The ytterbium ion has unique advantages in developing transportable and miniaturized optical clocks because it has long storage time and its related laser system is compact. In addition, the171Yb+ion has two clock transition lines, which can perform frequency self-comparison. This paper mainly introduces the progress in the development of the transportable optical clock system based on the single171Yb+ion at Tsinghua University, China. A transportable physical package, including the vacuum system, optic system and imaging system is presented and implemented to automatically detect the presence of trapped ion.
We present the design of a compact optical clock based on the 2 S 1/2 → 2 D 3/2 435.5 nm transition in 171 Yb + . The ion trap will be based on a micro-fabricated circuit, with surface electrodes generating a trapping potential to localize a single Yb ion a few hundred μ m from the electrodes. We present our trap design as well as simulations of the resulting trapping pseudo-potential. We also present a compact, multi-channel wavelength meter that will permit the frequency stabilization of the cooling, repumping and clear-out lasers at 369.5 nm, 935.2 nm and 638.6 nm needed to cool the ion. We use this wavelength meter to characterize and stabilize the frequency of extended cavity diode lasers at 369.5 nm and 638.6 nm.
For the past 15 years, tremendous progress within the fields of laser stabilization, optical frequency combs and atom cooling and trapping have allowed the realization of optical atomic clocks with unrivaled performances. These instruments can perform frequency comparisons with fractional uncertainties well below 10-17, finding applications in fundamental physics tests, relativistic geodesy and time and frequency metrology. Even though most optical clocks are currently laboratory setups, several proposals for using these clocks for field measurements or within an optical clock network have been published, and most of time and frequency metrology institutes have started to develop transportable optical clocks. For the purpose of this special issue, we chose to focus on trapped-ion optical clocks. Even though their short-term fractional frequency stability is impaired by a lower signal-to-noise ratio, they offer a high potential for compactness: trapped ions demand low optical powers and simple loading schemes, and can be trapped in small vacuum chambers. We review recent advances on the clock key components, including ion trap and ultra-stable optical cavity, as well as existing projects and experiments which draw the picture of what future transportable, single-ion optical clocks may resemble.