Ultra-stable clock laser system development towards space applications.
The increasing performance of optical lattice clocks has made them attractive for scientific applications in space and thus has pushed the development of their components including the interrogation lasers of the clock transitions towards being suitable for space, which amongst others requires making them more power efficient, radiation hardened, smaller, lighter as well as more mechanically stable. Here we present the development towards a space-compatible interrogation laser system for a strontium lattice clock constructed within the Space Optical Clock (SOC2) project where we have concentrated on mechanical rigidity and size. The laser reaches a fractional frequency instability of 7.9 × 10-16at 300 ms averaging time. The laser system uses a single extended cavity diode laser that gives enough power for interrogating the atoms, frequency comparison by a frequency comb and diagnostics. It includes fibre link stabilisation to the atomic package and to the comb. The optics module containing the laser has dimensions 60 × 45 × 8 cm3; and the ultra-stable reference cavity used for frequency stabilisation with its vacuum system takes 30 × 30 × 30 cm3. The acceleration sensitivities in three orthogonal directions of the cavity are 3.6 × 10-10/g, 5.8 × 10-10/g and 3.1 × 10-10/g, where g ≈ 9.8 m/s2is the standard gravitational acceleration.
School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom.|Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Bundesallee 100, 38116, Braunschweig, Germany.
Dariusz
D
Świerad
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Bundesallee 100, 38116, Braunschweig, Germany.
Sebastian
S
Häfner
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Bundesallee 100, 38116, Braunschweig, Germany.
Stefan
S
Vogt
LNE-SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, 61 Avenue de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France.
Bertrand
B
Venon
LNE-SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, 61 Avenue de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France.
David
D
Holleville
LNE-SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, 61 Avenue de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France.
Sébastien
S
Bize
Institute of Quantum Optics, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Welfengarten 1, D-30167 Hannover, Germany.
André
A
Kulosa
Institute of Quantum Optics, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Welfengarten 1, D-30167 Hannover, Germany.
Sebastian
S
Bode
School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom.
Yeshpal
Y
Singh
School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom.
Kai
K
Bongs
Institute of Quantum Optics, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Welfengarten 1, D-30167 Hannover, Germany.
Ernst Maria
EM
Rasel
LNE-SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, 61 Avenue de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France.
Jérôme
J
Lodewyck
LNE-SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, 61 Avenue de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France.
Rodolphe
R
Le Targat
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Bundesallee 100, 38116, Braunschweig, Germany.
Christian
C
Lisdat
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Bundesallee 100, 38116, Braunschweig, Germany.
Uwe
U
Sterr
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