Noise characterization of an ultra-stable laser for optical clocks

Zhiyuan Wang; Zhiyu Ma; Wenzhe Wei; Jialu Chang; Jingxuan Zhang; Qiyue Wu; Wenhao Yuan; Ke Deng; Zehuang Lu; Jie Zhang

doi:10.1063/5.0204016

Noise characterization of an ultra-stable laser for optical clocks

Rev Sci Instrum. 2024 May 1;95(5):053002. doi: 10.1063/5.0204016.

Authors

Zhiyuan Wang¹, Zhiyu Ma¹, Wenzhe Wei¹, Jialu Chang¹, Jingxuan Zhang¹, Qiyue Wu¹, Wenhao Yuan¹, Ke Deng¹, Zehuang Lu¹, Jie Zhang¹

Affiliation

¹ MOE Key Laboratory of Fundamental Physical Quantities Measurement and Hubei Key Laboratory of Gravitation and Quantum Physics, PGMF and School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 38690980
DOI: 10.1063/5.0204016

Abstract

We report on the development and performance evaluation of an ultra-stable laser for an 27Al+ optical clock. After a series of noise suppressions, especially the vibrational and temperature fluctuation noise, the 30 cm long cavity stabilized laser obtains a frequency instability of 1.3 × 10-16 @1 s. This result is predicted by noise summation and confirmed by the three-cornered hat method. The 27Al+ optical clock transition is also used to characterize the laser frequency noise, and consistent results are yielded. This is the first reported instance of using single ion optical clocks to measure the frequency noise of ultra-stable lasers, as far as we know. With the implementation of the ultra-stable clock laser, an ultra-narrow linewidth clock transition of 2.8 Hz is obtained.