Search

This works demonstrates an improved local two-way optical phase comparison method without the requirement of synchronization. Based on this scheme, we implement a real-time frequency comparison over a bi-directional 50-km fiber spool. The achieved relative frequency stability is 1.2E-16 at 1 s integration time and reaches 1.3E-21 at 40,000 s.

Ultra-stable reference cavity with high finesse is a crucial component in a narrow-linewidth laser system which is widely used in time and frequency metrology, the test of Lorentz invariance, and measure of gravitational wave. In this paper, we report the recent progress of the self-made spherical reference cavity, aiming at the future space application. The main function of cavity is the reference of ultra-stable laser, which is the local reference oscillation source of space optical clock. The diameter of the designed spherical cavity spacer made of ultra-low expansion glass is 80 mm, and the cavity length is 78 mm, flat-concave mirrors configuration, and the radius of the concave mirror is 0.5 m. The support structure is designed to have two 3.9 mm-radius spherical groves located at the poles of the sphere along the diameter direction (defined as support axis), and a 53 angle between the support axis and the optical axis. The mechanic vibration sensitivities of the cavity along and perpendicular to the optical axis are both calculated by finite element analysis method to be below 110-10/g. Five-axis linkage CNC machining sphere forming technology is applied to S80 mm spherical surface processing with spherical contour degree up to 0.02. After a three-stage surface polishing processes, the fused silicamirror substratessurface roughness is measured to be less than 0.2 nm (rms). Implementing double ion beam sputtering technique for mirror coating, the reflection of the coating achieves a reflectivity of 99.999% and a loss of 4 ppm for 698 nm laser. The coating surface roughness is measured to be 0.3 nm (rms). The cavity spacer and the mirror are bonded by dried optical contact. In order to improve the thermal noise characteristics of the cavity, an ultra low expansion ring is contacted optically to the outer surface of the mirror. The cavity is characterized by ring-down spectroscopy, and the finesse is around 195000. With the help of a home-made 698 nm ultra narrow line-width laser, the cavity line-width is measured to be 9.8 kHz by sweeping cavity method. A 698 nm semiconductor laser is locked to this spherical cavity by PDH technology, and the cavity loss is measured to be5 ppm.

In this paper, the noise filtering effect on a femtosecond laser source via a broadband passive cavity is analyzed in detail. The results show that a passive optical cavity not only can be used as a low-pass noise filter, but also can inter-convert the phase and amplitude fluctuations of a light beam after transmission or reflection. Therefore, by measuring the intensity noise of the light field under test after transmission and reflection from a passive cavity, its phase noise properties can be explored. Based on this theoretical model, an eight-mirror ring passive cavity with a finesse of 1500 and a free spectral range of 75 MHz is designed and built. With a commercial Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser as a source, its intensity noises after transmission and reflection from the above cavity are measured with home-made self-homodyne detection setup. Furthermore, with the help of the noise conversion model of the passive cavity, the phase noise of the femtosecond laser as well as its evolution through the cavity transmission and reflection is indirectly derived. The result shows that after transmission through the passive cavity, both the amplitude and phase noise of the femtosecond laser source are evidently suppressed and reach the shot noise limit at the analyzing frequency of 2 MHz.

Ultra-stable lasers at optical communication wavelengths have important applications in developing optical frequency transfer via optical fibers. We report the recent development of a 1550 nm stable laser system built at National Time Service Center and its preliminary application in optical frequency transfer via laboratory fibers. In the experiment, the conventional Pound-Drever-Hall(PDH) frequency stabilization technology is implemented to achieve the ultra-stable laser at the wavelength of 1550 nm. The output of a single laser source is split and locked onto the resonant frequency of two independent reference cavities, of 344000 and 296000 respectively. The frequency of the laser source is actively stabilized to the first reference cavity by piezo and external frequency shifters simultaneously and the total control bandwidth is measured to be 50 kHz. Then the laser frequency is shifted and stabilized to the second reference cavity by an acousto-optical modulator. A 5 m long single-mode fiber is used to bring the first laser beam to the second reference cavity which unfortunately induces unexpected phase noise by environmental distortions. The laser linewidth broadened is determined to be 0.27 Hz by the beat note measurement between the input and output beams of the fiber. To evaluate the frequency stability of the laser, the frequency control signal within the control bandwidth of the second stable laser system is analyzed by a spectrum analyzer and a frequency counter. The control signal shows a Lorentz linewidth of 2.7 Hz and a frequency stability of 2.510-14/s, corresponding to a single laser linewidth of 1.9 Hz with a frequency stability of 1.710-14/s if the two stable lasers have similar frequency stability. Applying this ultra-stable laser system as the laser source for the fiber-based optical frequency transfer, a short-term frequency transfer stability of 7.510-17/s is demonstrated through a 50 km-long fiber spool, while a frequency transfer stability of 2.410-16/s is achieved by a similar setup except that the laser source is a kHz-level linewidth laser. In the experiment an Agilent 53232 A frequency counter is applied to record the beat note signal in the auto mode. In the end, we discuss the possible improvements of the stable laser system, including the miniaturization of the optical setup, optimization of the control bandwidth and shortening of the response time of control loop.

Optical clocks are considered as promising candidates for redefining the second in the International System of Units. Compared with microwave clocks, optical clocks are powerful tools for the fundamental research such as the constancy of the fundamental constants, the validity of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and the predictions of quantum electrodynamics. Recently two research groups have demonstrated the optical clocks with an unprecedented precision level of 10-18, which is two orders better than the present primary frequency standard. Using two Sr optical clocks and three Cs fountain clocks, SYRTE group has demonstrated the definition of second with optical clocks.#br#For redefining the second with optical clocks in the future, the optical clocks from the remote laboratories should have a high precision and the frequency of the optical clocks need to be transferred over a long distance, with extremely high precision. Unfortunately the conventional means of frequency transfer such as two-way satellite time and frequency transfer can reach a 10-16 level in one day which is far below the requirement for an optical clocks. Various methods have been developed to transfer optical frequency signal via optical fibers. Especially a research group from Germany has achieved a frequency transfer stability of 10-19 level in hundreds of seconds with a fiber length of 1840 km.#br#We demonstrate the recent development of optical frequency transfer over a 70-km fiber spool at National Time Service Center. The measurement shows that the compensation for the fiber noise is close to the limitation induced by the fiber delay for the Fourier frequency from 1 Hz to 250 Hz. The transfer stability (Allan deviation) of the fiber link is 1.2×10-15 in 1 s averaging time, and 1.4×10-18 in 10000 s. A preliminary test of the optical frequency transfer over a 100-km spooled fiber is achieved with a stability of roughly one order worse than the 71 km result, 5×10-15 in 1 s.#br#We demonstrate a new scheme of remote compensation for optical frequency transfer via fibers against conventional local compensation method. This new scheme has the advantage of great simplification of the local site, which can find applications in massive extension of star network. The key feature is that we transfer the mixture of the round-trip signal and local reference to the remote user’s end via an auxiliary fiber. At remote site, the fiber noise is measured and compensated by AOM2 accordingly.#br#Transfer stabilities of 13×10-15 in 1 s averaging time and 4.8×10-18 in 10000 s are achieved with the remote fiber noise compensation via a 25 km fiber spool. The demonstrated transfer stability is comparable to that obtained by the local fiber noise compensation method.#br#The future star fiber network of optical frequency transfer can benefit from this method, because the simpler local setup is required and even can be shared in the central site for multitudinous remote users.

We have investigated the vibrational sensitivity of a horizontal-mounted spherical reference cavity, which can be applied to develop an ultra-stable laser. Effects of different magnitudes of height and area as well as acceleration of the cavity support points on the length variation of the cavity are studied. When the cavity support points are totally constrained, the vibration sensitivity can be reduced to below 3.0×10-10/g. After performing extensive numerical simulations, we can find the optimal support position. According to the obtained results we present the mounting scheme of the spherical cavity. Taking into consideration the machining errors, near-horizontal mounting, and unsymmetrical mounting of the cavity, we can describe quantitatively the length variation of the cavity caused by these three factors. We also discuss the contribution of the second order effect to the length variation of the cavity.