Stable Laser System for Probing the Clock Transition at 578 nm in Neutral Ytterbium

Author

Oates, C.W. ; Barber, Z.W. ; Stalnaker, J.E. ; Hoyt, C.W. ; Fortier, T.M. ; Diddams, S.A. ; Hollberg, L.

Author_Institution

Nat. Inst. of Stand. & Technol., Boulder

fYear

2007

fDate

May 29 2007-June 1 2007

Firstpage

1274

Lastpage

1277

Abstract

We describe a new laser system we have developed to probe the ultra-narrow ¹S₀ harr ³P₀ clock transition at 578 nm in neutral ytterbium. The yellow light is produced by sum frequency generation in a periodically poled waveguide. With approximately 100 mW each from a fiber laser and Nd:YAG laser, we produce 10 mW of visible light. Stabilization of the laser to a resonance of a high finesse, environmentally isolated cavity has enabled resolution of spectroscopic features as narrow as 5 Hz.

Keywords

atomic clocks; fibre lasers; laser beams; laser stability; optical frequency conversion; optical waveguides; solid lasers; Nd:YAG laser; clock transition; environmentally isolated cavity; fiber laser; laser stabilization; neutral ytterbium; periodically poled waveguide; power 10 mW; stable laser system; sum frequency generation; wavelength 578 nm; yellow light; Clocks; Fiber lasers; Frequency; Laser stability; Laser transitions; Probes; Resonance; Spectroscopy; Waveguide lasers; Ytterbium;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Frequency Control Symposium, 2007 Joint with the 21st European Frequency and Time Forum. IEEE International

Conference_Location

Geneva

ISSN

1075-6787

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-0646-3

Electronic_ISBN

1075-6787

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/FREQ.2007.4319281

Filename

4319281