Calcium optical frequency standard

Fritz Riehle; Harald Schnatz; Burghard Lipphardt; Uwe Sterr; Tomas Binnewies; Guido Wilpers; Tilmann Trebst; Juergen Helmcke

doi:10.1117/12.424460

3 May 2001 Calcium optical frequency standard

Fritz Riehle, Harald Schnatz, Burghard Lipphardt, Uwe Sterr, Tomas Binnewies, Guido Wilpers, Tilmann Trebst, Juergen Helmcke

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4269, Laser Frequency Stabilization, Standards, Measurement, and Applications; (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.424460
Event: Photonics West 2001 - LASE, 2001, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

A laser that is frequency stabilized to the intercombination transition at (lambda) equals 657 nm of laser cooled ⁴⁰Ca atoms by means of time-domain atom interferences has been developed at PTB. The relative uncertainty of this optical frequency standard is 2.5 X 10^-13 and the frequency of the laser has been measured with both, a conventional frequency measurement chain and a femtosecond laser. To reduce the uncertainty of this standard the dependence of its frequency on various parameters was investigated by using phase sensitive and frequency sensitive atom interferometers. Upper bounds were derived for various contributions to the uncertainty as e.g. the influence of gravitational acceleration, collisions of the ballistic atoms, or curvature of the wave fronts of the interrogating laser beams. Further reduction of the uncertainty of the standard is expected from the application of sub-Doppler cooling techniques. A method was devised based on the narrow intercombination transition that enabled us to reduce the velocity spread of the Ca atoms in one dimension close to the recoil limit. The method uses the repeated selection and accumulation of slow atoms from the pre-cooled atomic cloud and the repeated rethermalization of the remaining atoms and results in an increased visibility of the interference structure.

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Fritz Riehle, Harald Schnatz, Burghard Lipphardt, Uwe Sterr, Tomas Binnewies, Guido Wilpers, Tilmann Trebst, and Juergen Helmcke "Calcium optical frequency standard", Proc. SPIE 4269, Laser Frequency Stabilization, Standards, Measurement, and Applications, (3 May 2001); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.424460

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