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Optics

Determining the Magic Wavelength Without Modulation of the Trap Depth

Jingjing Xia, Feng Guo, Yanhua Zhou, X. Lu, Hong Chang

Published Nov 22, 2024• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this paper, the magic wavelength of the 87Sr optical lattice clock is determined by a method that bypasses the need for lattice trap depth modulation. Instead, it relies on an additional AC Stark shift generated by a dipole beam operating near the frequency of the lattice light and oriented perpendicular to the optical lattice. The magic wavelength is inferred by measuring the AC Stark shift induced by the dipole beam as a function of its power under various frequency detunings. The effect of the dipole beam on the external states of the cold ensemble is evaluated through comparative analysis of the radial and axial sideband spectra, both with and without the dipole beam. Variations in density shift resulting from changes in external states are evaluated using comprehensive numerical calculations. By avoiding trap depth modulation, this method effectively suppresses the influence of the density shift, thereby offering a promising avenue for accurately determining the magic wavelength.

DOI
10.3390/opt5040040

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In this paper, the magic wavelength of the 87Sr optical lattice clock is determined by a method that bypasses the need for lattice trap depth modulation. Instead, it relies on an additional AC Stark shift generated by a dipole beam operating near the frequency of the lattice light and oriented perpendicular to the optical lattice. The magic wavelength is inferred by measuring the AC Stark shift induced by the dipole beam as a function of its power under various frequency detunings. The effect of the dipole beam on the external states of the cold ensemble is evaluated through comparative analysis of the radial and axial sideband spectra, both with and without the dipole beam. Variations in density shift resulting from changes in external states are evaluated using comprehensive numerical calculations. By avoiding trap depth modulation, this method effectively suppresses the influence of the density shift, thereby offering a promising avenue for accurately determining the magic wavelength.
In this paper, we demonstrate a frequency modulation technique to accurately measure the probe Stark shift of optical clocks. The effective coupling strength of the probe laser to the clock transition is precisely controlled by this frequency modulation technique, which is different from the traditional method by controlling the effective coupling strength via changing the probe light power. In an 87Sr optical lattice clock, the probe Stark shifts are measured as a function of the square of the bare state coupling strength. The probe Stark shift coefficient of 87Sr is experimentally determined as −6.0(5)×10−7/Hz using this frequency modulation technique. With the help of frequency modulation, the probe light power can be as large as possible without decreasing the measurement precision and the achieved measurement lever arm is improved by more than one order of magnitude compared with previous results.
State-of-the-art optical clocks based on neutral atoms have already surpassed the world's best microwave atomic clocks in both accuracy and stability, paving the way to high-precision measurements of elementary aspects of nature, like the search for the drift of fundamental constants or the application of relativistic geodesy.These clocks operate with ensembles trapped in an optical lattice.Normally, high-power trapping laser fields induce a large AC Stark shift on the clock's transition frequency, as the clock states have different polarizabilities.A key feature of lattice clocks is the magic wavelength, for which the atomic polarizabilities of the clock states are equal, therefore compensating a differential frequency shift on the clock transition.In the periodic potential of the optical lattice, the energy spectrum of motional states features a band structure, analogous to electrons in a crystalline structure well-known from solid state physics.Within this band structure, atoms can tunnel between adjacent lattice sites.As a consequence from tunneling motion, the clock transition experiences a frequency shift and a broadening, which becomes pronounced in the shallow lattice regime.This work presents the first demonstration of a 24 Mg optical lattice clock including the precise determination of the frequency of the clock transition, its magic wavelength and its second-order Zeeman shift.Furthermore, the effect of tunneling in an optical lattice for magnesium has been extensively studied via optical spectroscopy of Bloch bands and substantiated with theoretical models, that were initially developed for a strontium optical lattice clock.Measuring lattice light induced frequency shifts of the clock transition for various lattice wavelengths and intensities, yielded a value of the magic wavelength of the 1 S 0 → 3 P 0 clock transition in 24 Mg of 468.463(207) nm.This value is in well agreement with a recent theoretical calculation of 468.45(23) nm, using a refined atomic structure model.The experimental value for the magic wavelength was independently verified with optical spectroscopy of Bloch bands carried out on the clock transition.Here, the AC Stark modified band structure is directly probed by a single frequency scan of the carrier resonance, featuring an asymmetric line shape, that is strongly dependent on the lattice wavelength.This technique demonstrates a novel method for the determination of the magic wavelength and could also be applied to other atomic species.In bosonic isotopes of alkaline earth(-like) elements, like 24 Mg, optical dipole excitation of the spin-forbidden 1 S 0 → 3 P 0 clock transition can be enhanced, e.g. by applying an external magnetic field.While these bosons are insensitive to first-order Zeeman shifts, the second-order Zeeman effect displays a dominant contribution to the clock's error budget.In this thesis, the magnetic polarizability β is measured to be -206.6(2.0)MHz/T 2 , consistent with a theoretical calculation, and the clock transition frequency was found to be 655 058 646 691(101) kHz.
Experiments involving optical traps often require careful control of the ac Stark shifts induced by strong confining light fields. By carefully balancing light shifts between two atomic states of interest, optical traps at the magic wavelength have been especially effective at suppressing deleterious effects stemming from such shifts. Highlighting the power of this technique, optical clocks today exploit Lamb-Dicke confinement in magic-wavelength optical traps, in some cases realizing shift cancelation at the ten parts per billion level. Theory and empirical measurements can be used at varying levels of precision to determine the magic wavelength where shift cancelation occurs. However, lasers exhibit background spectra from amplified spontaneous emission or other lasing modes that can easily contaminate measurement of the magic wavelength and its reproducibility in other experiments or conditions. Indeed, residual light shifts from laser background have plagued optical lattice clock measurements for years. In this work, we develop a simple theoretical model allowing prediction of light shifts from measured background spectra. We demonstrate good agreement between this model and measurements of the background light shift from an amplified diode laser in a Yb optical lattice clock. Additionally, we model and experimentally characterize the filtering effect of a volume Bragg grating bandpass filter, demonstrating that application of the filter can reduce background light shifts from amplified spontaneous emission well below the ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}18}$ fractional clock frequency level. This demonstration is corroborated by direct clock comparisons between a filtered amplified diode laser and a filtered titanium:sapphire laser.
We report on the magic wavelength measurement of our optical lattice clock based on fermion strontium atoms at the National Institute of Metrology (NIM). A Ti:sapphire solid state laser locked to a reference cavity inside a temperature-stabilized vacuum chamber is employed to generate the optical lattice. The laser frequency is measured by an erbium fiber frequency comb. The trap depth is modulated by varying the lattice laser power via an acousto-optic modulator. We obtain the frequency shift coefficient at this lattice wavelength by measuring the differential frequency shift of the clock transition of the strontium atoms at different trap depths, and the frequency shift coefficient at this lattice wavelength is obtained. We measure the frequency shift coefficients at different lattice frequencies around the magic wavelength and linearly fit the measurement data, and the magic wavelength is calculated to be 368554672(44) MHz.
After being pumped from the 5 s 1/2 ground state to the 6 p 1/2 state, the population inversion between 6 s 1/2 and 5 p 1/2,3/2 can be established for a rubidium four-level active optical clock. We calculate the ac Stark shift due to lattice trapping laser which dominates the frequency shift of clock transition in a lattice trapped rubidium four-level active optical clock. Several magic wavelengths are found, which can form desired optical lattice trapping potential. By choosing a proper intensity and linewidth of the trapping laser, the fractional frequency uncertainty of clock transition due to the ac Stark shift of the trapping laser, is estimated to be below 10 −18 .
Wavelength-dependent AC Stark shifts and magic wavelengths of the terahertz clock transitions between the metastable triplet states 6s5d 3 D 1 and 6s5d 3 D 2 are investigated with considering the optical lattice trapping of barium atoms with the linearly polarized laser. The trap depths and the slopes of light shift difference with distinct magic wavelengths of the optical lattices are also discussed in detail. Several potentially suitable working points for the optical lattice trapping laser are recommended and selected from these magic wavelengths.