A robust method for frequency stabilization of 556-nm laser operating at the intercombination transition of ytterbium

A frequency-stabilized 556-nm laser is an essential tool for experimental studies associated with 1 S 0-3 P 1 intercombination transition of ytterbium (Yb) atoms.A 556-nm laser light using a single-pass second harmonic generation (SHG) is obtained in a periodically poled MgO:LiNbO 3 (PPLN) crystal pumped by a fiber laser at 1111.6 nm.A robust frequency stabilization method which facilitates the control of laser frequency with an accuracy better than the natural linewidth (187 kHz) of the intercombination line is developed.The short-term frequency jitter is reduced to less than 100 kHz by locking the laser to a home-made reference cavity.A slow frequency drift is sensed by the 556-nm fluorescence signal of an Yb atomic beam excited by one probe beam and is reduced to less than 50-kHz by a computer-controlled servo system.The laser can be stably locked for more than 5 h.This frequency stabilization method can be extended to other alkaline-earth-like atoms with similar weak intercombination lines.     

A Hertz-Linewidth Ultrastable Diode Laser System for Clock Transition Detection of Strontium Atoms

The frequencies of two 698 nm external cavity diode lasers （ECDLs） are locked separately to two independently located ultrahigh finesse optical resonant cavities with the Pound Drever-Hall technique. The linewidth of each ECDL is measured to be -4.6 Hz by their beating and the fractional frequency stability below 5 × 10^-15 between 1 s to lOs averaging time. Another 698nm laser diode is injection locked to one of the cavity-stabilized ECDLs with a fixed frequency offset for power amplification while maintaining its linewidth and frequency characteristics. The frequency drift is H1 Hz/s measured by a femtosecond optical frequency comb based on erbium fiber. The output of the injection slave laser is delivered to the magneto-optical trap of a Sr optical clock through a iO- ta-long single mode polarization maintaining fiber with an active fiber noise cancelation technique to detect the clock transition of Sr atoms.     

Ytterbium-sensitized thulium-doped fiber laser with a single-mode output operating at 1900-nm region

A single-mode laser is demonstrated using a newly developed double-clad thulium-ytterbium-doped fiber (TYDF) in a linear cavity formed by two fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). The YTF used is drawn from a D-shape preform fabricated using the modified chemical vapor deposition and solution doping technique. The laser is operated at 1 901.6 nm via the transition of thulium ions from 3F4 to 3H6 with the assistance of ytterbium to thulium ion energy transfer. The efficiencies of the laser are 0.71% and 0.75% at 927- and 905-nm multimode pumping, respectively. The thresholds of the launched pump power for 927- and 905-nm pumping are 1 314 and 1 458 mW, respectively. A 7-mW output is obtained at a 905-nm pump power of 2 400 mW.     

Transferring the stability of iodine-stabilized diode laser at 634 nm to radio frequency by an optical frequency comb

An optical flequency comb phase-locked on an iodine frequency stabilized diode laser at 634 nm is constructed to transfer the accuracy and stability from the optical domain to the radio frequency domain. An external-cavity diode laser is frequency-stabilized on the Doppler-free absorption signals of the hyperfine transition R（80）8-4 using the third-harmonic detection technique. The instability of the ultra-stable optical oscillator is determined to be 7 ×10^-12 by a cesium atomic clock via the optical frequency comb＇s mass frequencv dividing technique.     

Realization of Green MOT for Ytterbium Atoms

We report the experimental realization of a magneto-optical trap （MOT） of ^174 Yb atoms operating on the ^1 So -^3 P1 intereombination transition at 555.8nm. The green MOT is loaded by a Zeeman-slowed atomic beam. In order to increase the capture velocity of the MOT, we use the trapping laser beams consisting of five discrete frequency components obtained by modulating the laser light through an electro-optic modulator. The trapped atomic number of the ^174Yb isotope is about 6.2 × 105, and the temperature of the cold atomic cloud is estimated to be about 100μK. The success of the green MOT is an clock. important step towards the goal of an ytterbium optical     

Atom-referenced and stabilized soliton microcomb

For the applications of the frequency comb in microresonators, it is essential to obtain a fully frequency-stabilized microcomb laser source. In this study, we present a system for generating a fully atom-referenced stabilized soliton microcomb. The pump light around 1560.48 nm is locked to an ultra-low-expansion(ULE) cavity. This pump light is then frequency-doubled and referenced to the atomic transition of ⁸⁷Rb. The repetition rate of the soliton microcomb is injection-locked to an...     

Frequency locking of a 399-nm laser referenced to fluorescence spectrum of an ytterbium atomic beam

The laser cooling of ytterbium(Yb) atoms needs a 399-nm laser which operates on the strong1S0-1P1 transition and can be locked at the desired frequencies for different Yb isotopes.We demonstrate a frequency locking method using the fluorescence spectrum of an Yb atomic beam as a frequency reference.For unresolved fluorescence peaks,we make the spectrum of the even isotopes vanish by using the strong angular-dependence of the fluorescence radiations;the remained closely-spaced peaks are thus clearly resolved and able to serve as accurate frequency references.A computer-controlled servo system is used to lock the laser frequency to a single fluorescence peak of interest,and a frequency stability of 304 kHz is achieved.This frequency-locked laser enables us to realize stable blue magneto-optic-traps(MOT) for all abundant Yb isotopes.     

Widely tunable linear-cavity multiwavelength fiber laser with distributed Brillouin scattering

We demonstrate a multiple wavelength Brillouin/erbium fiber laser in a linear cavity configuration.The laser cavity is made up of a fiber loop mirror on one end of the resonator and a virtual mirror generated from the distributed stimulated Brillouin scattering effect on the other end.Due to the weak reflectivity provided by the virtual mirror,self-lasing cavity modes are completely suppressed from the laser cavity.At Brillouin pump and 1480-nm pump powers of 2 and 130 mW,respectively,11 channels of the demonstrated laser with an average total power of 7.13 dBm can freely be tuned over a span of 37-nm wavelength from 1530 to 1567 nm.     

Frequency stabilization of a 214.5-nm ultraviolet laser

An improved method for stabilizing a frequency-quadrupled 214.5-nm tunable diode laser system is reported. Improvements to the method include a homemade logic circuit and the use of a Fabry-Perot optical spectrum analyzer as a transfer cavity. Lasers locked with this method exhibit megahertz-level frequency stability measured with an optical frequency comb referenced to a cesium atomic standard. The laser can be locked for hours to days, depending on experiment requirements. Being relatively inexpensive, stable, and robust, the control method can be applied to stabilizing essentially all lasers of deep ultraviolet wavelengths.     

Stabilization and Shift of Frequency in an External Cavity Diode Laser with Solenoid-Assisted Saturated Absorption

A simple method to realize both stabilization and shift of the frequency in an external cavity diode laser （ECDL） is reported. Due to the Zeeman effect, the saturated absorption spectrum of Rb atoms in a magnetic field is shifted. This shift can be used to detune the frequency of the ECDL, which is locked to the saturated absorption spectrum. The frequency shift amount can be controlled by changing the magnetic field for a specific polarization state of the laser beam. The advantages of this tunable frequency lock include low laser power requirement, without additional power loss, cheapness, and so on.