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ACS Photonics

Demonstration of an Optical Atomic Clock with an Integrated Laser

William Morrow, Sarah K. Scholten, Hannes Griesser, Lothar Ratschbacher, Christopher Perrella, Nicolas Bourbeau Hebert, Lisa-Sophie Haerteis, Svenja Jung, Lachlan Pointon, Christopher J. Billington, Andre Nicholas Luiten, Andreas Boes

Published Jul 22, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Photonic integrated circuits are revolutionizing quantum optical systems as they can drastically reduce Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWaP-C) requirements by consolidating bulk optical components onto singular photonic chips. We demonstrate the use of an integrated photonic laser to excite the two-photon clock 5S1/2(F = 2) → 5D5/2(F = 4) transition in 87Rb, thereby frequency-stabilizing the integrated laser to this transition. We achieve a measured fractional frequency instability of 3 × 10–12 at 1 s of integration time, which integrates down for 130 s. This demonstrates the potential of integrated photonic lasers for broader use in future integrated quantum photonic systems, including optical atomic clocks.

DOI
10.1021/acsphotonics.6c00958

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Abstract Photonic integrated circuits are revolutionizing quantum optical systems as they can drastically reduce Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWaP-C) requirements by consolidating bulk optical components onto singular photonic chips. We demonstrate the use of an integrated photonic laser to excite the two-photon clock 5S1/2(F = 2) → 5D5/2(F = 4) transition in 87Rb, thereby frequency-stabilizing the integrated laser to this transition. We achieve a measured fractional frequency instability of 3 × 10–12 at 1 s of integration time, which integrates down for 130 s. This demonstrates the potential of integrated photonic lasers for broader use in future integrated quantum photonic systems, including optical atomic clocks.
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Integrating precise, stable, ultra-low noise visible light lasers into atomic systems is critical for advancing quantum information sciences and improving scalability and portability. Trapped ions are a leading approach for high-fidelity quantum computing, high-accuracy optical clocks, and precision quantum sensors. However, current ion-based systems rely on bulky, lab-scale precision lasers and optical stabilization cavities for optical clock and qubit operations, constraining the size, weight, scalability, and portability of atomic systems. Chip-scale integration of ultra-low noise lasers and reference cavities operating directly at optical clock transitions and capable of qubit and clock operations will represent a major transformation in atom and trapped ion-based quantum technologies. However, this goal has remained elusive. Here we report the first demonstration of chip-scale optical clock and qubit operations on a trapped ion using a photonic integrated direct-drive visible wavelength Brillouin laser stabilized to an integrated 3-meter coil-resonator reference cavity and the optical clock transition of a 88^{88}88Sr+^++ ion trapped on a surface electrode chip. We also demonstrate for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, trapped-ion spectroscopy and qubit operations such as Rabi oscillations and high fidelity (99%) qubit state preparation and measurement (SPAM) using direct drive integrated photonic technologies without bulk optic stabilization cavities or second harmonic generation. Our chip-scale stabilized Brillouin laser exhibits a 6 kHz linewidth with the 0.4 Hz quadrupole transition of 88^{88}88Sr+^++ and a self-consistent coherence time of 60 μμμs via Ramsey interferometry on the trapped ion qubit. Furthermore, we demonstrate the stability of the locked Brillouin laser to 5×10−13/τ\times10^{-13}/ \sqrtτ×10−13/τ​ at 1 second using dual optical clocks.