Generation of Continuous-Wave 194 nm Laser for Mercury Ion Optical Frequency Standard

A 194-nm cw laser is an essential part in the mercury ion optical frequency standard. We report the generation of over 2mW continuous-wave radiation at 194nm in a beta barium borate crystal using a simple sum frequency mixing （SFM） system. One source beams at 718nm is resonantly enhanced with a cavity and the other at 266mn makes a single pass. Considering the walk-off effect in SFM, the source beam waists are designed to be elliptical, thus the conversion efficiency can be promoted. The 266-nm beam produced by frequency doubling of 532-nm laser is shaped close to the diffraction limit to achieve better mode matching.

Dual-Wavelength Bad Cavity Laser as Potential Active Optical Frequency Standard

We experimentally realize the dual-wavelength bad cavity laser for the first time. As the Cs cell temperature is kept between 118℃ and 144℃, both the 1359nm and 147Ohm lasing outputs of dual-wavelength bad cavity laser are detected. The laser output power of dual-wavelength bad cavity laser is measured when changing the 455 nm pumping laser frequency and power at 127℃ Cs cell temperature. Both the 1359 nm laser and the 1470 nm laser are working at the deep bad cavity regime, and the ratio between the linewidth of cavity mode and the laser gain bandwidth a ≈ 40 for 1359nm and 1470nm lasers. The 147Ohm laser linewidth is measured to be 407.3Hz. The dual-wavelength bad cavity laser operating on atomic transitions demonstrated here has a potential in the application as a stable optical local oscillator, even an active optical frequency standard directly in the future.

Experimental Scheme of 633 nm and 1359 nm Good-Bad Cavity Dual-Wavelength Active Optical Frequency Standard

The experimental scheme of 633 nm and 1359 nm good-bad cavity dual-wavelength active optical frequency stan- dard is proposed, where He-Ne 633nm and Cs 1359nm stimulated emissions are working at good-cavity and bad-cavity regimes, respectively. The cavity length is stabilized by locking the 633nm output frequency to a super-cavity with the Pound Drever-Hall （PDH） technique. The frequency stability of 1359 nm bad-cavity stim- ulated emission output is then expected to be further improved by at least 1 order of magnitude than the 633nm PDH system due to the suppressed cavity pulling effect of active optical clock, and the quantum limited linewidth of 1359nm output is estimated to be 72.5 mHz.

A 420nm Blue Diode Laser for the Potential Rubidium Optical Frequency Standard

We report a 42Ohm external cavity diode laser with an interference filter （IF） of 0.5am narrow-bandwidth and 79% high transmission, which is first used for Rb optical frequency standard. The IF and the cat-eye reflector are used for selecting wavelength and light feedback, respectively. The measured laser linewidth is 24 kHz when the diode laser is free running. Using this narrow-linewidth IF blue diode laser, we realize a compact Rb optical frequency standard without a complicated PDH system. The preliminary stability of the Rb optical frequency standard is 2 × 10^-13 at I s and decreases to 1.9 ×10^-14 at 1000s. The narrow-linewidth characteristic makes the IF blue diode laser a well suited candidate for the compact Rb optical frequency standard.

Improvement of Laser Frequency Stabilization for the Optical Pumping Cesium Beam Standard

A method is presented to improve the laser frequency stabilization for the optical pumping cesium clock. By comparing the laser frequency stabilization of different schemes, we verify that the light angle is an important factor that limits the long-term frequency stability. We minimize the drift of the light angle by using a fiber- coupled output, and lock the frequency of a distributed-feedback diode laser to the fluorescence spectrum of the atomic beam. The measured frequency stability is about 3.5 ×10^-11 at i s and reaches 1.5 × 10^-12 at 2000s. The Allan variance keeps going down for up to thousands of seconds, indicating that the medium- and long-term stability of the laser frequency is significantly improved and perfectly fulfills the requirement for the optical pumping cesium clock.

Decreased vibrational susceptibility of Fabry-Perot cavities via designs of geometry and structural support

Ultra-stable optical cavities are widely used for laser frequency stabilization. In these experiments the laser performance relies on the length stability of the Fabry-Perot cavities. Vibration-induced deformation is one of the dominant factors that affect the stability of ultra-stable optical cavities. We have quantitatively analysed the elastic deformation of Fabry-Perot cavities with various shapes and mounting configurations. Our numerical result facilitates a novel approach for the design of ultra-stable cavities that are insensitive to vibrational perturbations. This approach can be applied to many experiments such as laser frequency stabilization, high-precision laser spectroscopy, and optical frequency standards.

Precision spectroscopy with a single ^(40)Ca^+ ion in a Paul trap

Precision measurement of the 4s2 S1/2-3d2 D5/2 clock transition based on 40Ca＋ ion at 729 nm is reported. A single 40Ca＋ ion is trapped and laser-cooled in a ring Paul trap, and the storage time for the ion is more than one month. The linewidth of a 729 nm laser is reduced to about 1 Hz by locking to a super cavity for longer than one month uninterruptedly. The overall systematic uncertainty of the clock transition is evaluated to be better than 6.5 ×10^-16. The absolute frequency of the clock transition is measured at the 10^-15 level by using an optical frequency comb referenced to a hydrogen maser which is calibrated to the SI second through the global positioning system （GPS）, The frequency value is 411 042 129 776 393.0（1.6） Hz with the correction of the systematic shifts. In order to carry out the comparison of two 40Ca＋ optical frequency standards, another similar 40Ca＋ optical frequency standard is constructed. Two optical frequency standards exhibit stabilities of 1 × 10^-14 T-1/2 with 3 days of averaging. Moreover, two additional precision measurements based on the single trapped 40Ca＋ ion are carried out. One is the 3d2Ds/2 state lifetime measurement, and our result of 1174（10） ms agrees well with the results reported in [Phys. Rev. A 62 032503 （2000）] and [Phys. Rev. A 71 032504 （2005）]. The other one is magic wavelengths for the 4s2S1/2-3d2Ds/2 clock transition; λ ｜mj｜=1/2= 395.7992（7） nm and λ｜m｜=3/2 = 395.7990（7） nm are reported, and it is the first time that two magic wavelengths for the 40Ca＋ clock-transition have been reported.