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Optical and Quantum Sensing and Precision Metrology II

Spectroscopy of the 689 nm Sr intercombination line in a microfabricated vapor cell

Yang Li, John E. Kitching, Matthew T. Hummon

Published Mar 5, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We describe shelving spectroscopy measurement of the 689 nm Sr intercombination line in a microfabricated vapor cell. We demonstrate a linewidth below 200 kHz in a 9 x 14 x 4.4 mm Sr vapor cell, limited primarily by transit time broadening and residual Doppler broadening. This device will be useful for developing compact optical frequency references, as well as for laser pre-stabilization for some quantum computing platforms based on alkaline earth atoms.

DOI
10.1117/12.3092125

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Optics Letters•Dec 9, 2022•20 citations
We describe shelving spectroscopy measurement of the 689 nm Sr intercombination line in a microfabricated vapor cell. We demonstrate a linewidth below 200 kHz in a 9 x 14 x 4.4 mm Sr vapor cell, limited primarily by transit time broadening and residual Doppler broadening. This device will be useful for developing compact optical frequency references, as well as for laser pre-stabilization for some quantum computing platforms based on alkaline earth atoms.
We report a 100 kHz linewidth for the 1 S 0 to 3 P 1 intercombination line of 88 Sr atoms at 689 nm in a microfabricated (9×14×4.4) mm 3 vapor cell. This puts an upper bound on the residual gas pressure in the vapor cell of 10 mTorr. The microfabricated Sr vapor cell offers an inexpensive and scalable way to lock lasers in state-of-the-art cold-atom-based atomic clocks and quantum computing experiments. It also paves the way for compact and precise optical frequency references based on alkaline earth vapor cells.
Abstract We present a spectroscopy scheme for the 7 kHz wide 689 nm intercombination line of strontium. We rely on shelving detection, where electrons are first excited to a metastable state by the spectroscopy laser before their state is probed using the broad transition at 461 nm. As in the similar setting of calcium beam clocks, this enhances dramatically the signal strength as compared to direct saturated fluorescence or absorption spectroscopy of the narrow line. We implement shelving spectroscopy both in directed atomic beams and hot vapor cells with isotropic atomic velocities. We measure a fractional frequency instability ∼2 × 10 −12 at 1s limited by technical noise—about one order of magnitude above shot noise limitations for our experimental parameters. Our work illustrates the robustness and flexibility of a scheme that can be very easily implemented in the reference cells or ovens of most existing strontium experiments, and may find applications for low-complexity clocks.
We present a spectroscopy scheme for the 7-kHz-wide 689-nm intercombination line of strontium. We rely on shelving detection, where electrons are first excited to a metastable state by the spectroscopy laser before their state is probed using the broad transition at 461 nm. As in the similar setting of calcium beam clocks, this enhances dramatically the signal strength as compared to direct saturated fluorescence or absorption spectroscopy of the narrow line. We implement shelving spectroscopy both in directed atomic beams and hot vapor cells with isotropic atomic velocities. We measure a fractional frequency instability ∼2×10−12\sim 2 \times 10^{-12}∼2×10−12 at 1 s limited by technical noise - about one order of magnitude above shot noise limitations for our experimental parameters. Our work illustrates the robustness and flexibility of a scheme that can be very easily implemented in the reference cells or ovens of most existing strontium experiments, and may find applications for low-complexity clocks.
We demonstrate strontium (Sr) atomic vapor cells having a total external volume of 0.63 cm 3 that can operate above 300 °C for times exceeding 380 h. The cells are fabricated using micromachined silicon frames anodically bonded to glass windows that have a 20-nm thick protective layer of Al 2 O 3 deposited on the interior surfaces. The presence of Sr vapor in the cell is confirmed through laser absorption spectroscopy for the 1 S 0 → 1 P 1 transition in Sr at 461 nm. Measurements of sub-Doppler linewidths indicated negligible (<3 MHz) broadening of this transition from residual background gas collisions. This compact and manufacturable, high-temperature atomic vapor cell can enable narrow-line optical frequency references based on strontium and other alkaline earth species.