DocumentCode :
2747804
Title :
A sub-40 mHz laser based on a silicon single-crystal optical cavity
Author :
Kessler, Thomas ; Hagemann, Christian ; Sterr, Uwe ; Riehle, Fritz ; Martin, Michael ; Ye, Lun
Author_Institution :
Phys.-Tech. Bundesanstalt, Braunschweig, Germany
fYear :
2012
fDate :
1-6 July 2012
Firstpage :
272
Lastpage :
273
Abstract :
State-of-the-art optical oscillators are limited by thermal noise that causes fluctuations of the cavity length. This laser performance is currently setting the limit for the stability of optical clocks. We demonstrate that single crystal silicon as resonator material can potentially reduce the thermal noise limit for optical cavities by an order of magnitude. We present an experimental realization of such a cavity where the spacer and the mirror substrates are both machined from single crystal silicon and operated at 124 K where the thermal expansion coefficient is zero. We present the setup and performance of this cavity. The stability was analyzed in a three-cornered-hat analysis of heterodyne beat signals among three independent stable lasers. The silicon cavity demonstrates a fractional frequency stability of 1 × 10-16 at short time scales and supports a world-record laser linewidth of <;40 mHz at 1.5 μm.
Keywords :
elemental semiconductors; laser cavity resonators; laser frequency stability; laser mirrors; laser noise; semiconductor lasers; silicon; spectral line breadth; thermal expansion; thermal noise; Si; cavity length fluctuations; fractional frequency stability; frequency 40 mHz; heterodyne beat signals; laser performance; laser stability; mirror substrates; optical clocks; optical oscillators; resonator material; silicon single-crystal optical cavity; temperature 124 K; thermal expansion coefficient; thermal noise; three-cornered-hat analysis; wavelength 1.5 mum; world-record laser linewidth; Clocks; Glass; Lead; Resonant frequency; Frequency metrology; Optical reference cavities; Silicon; Sub-Hz laser;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Precision Electromagnetic Measurements (CPEM), 2012 Conference on
Conference_Location :
Washington, DC
ISSN :
0589-1485
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-0439-9
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/CPEM.2012.6250907
Filename :
6250907
Link To Document :
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