Crystalline optical cavity at 4 K with thermal-noise-limited instability and ultralow drift

Robinson, J. M., Oelker, E., Milner, W. R., Zhang, W., Legero, T., Matei, D. G., Riehle, F., Sterr, U. and Ye, J. (2019) Crystalline optical cavity at 4 K with thermal-noise-limited instability and ultralow drift. Optica, 6(2), pp. 240-243. (doi: 10.1364/OPTICA.6.000240)

Abstract

Crystalline optical cavities are the foundation of today’s state-of-the-art ultrastable lasers. Building on our previous silicon cavity effort, we now achieve the fundamental thermal-noise-limited stability for a 6 cm long silicon cavity cooled to 4 K, reaching 6.5×10−17 from 0.8 s to 80 s. We also report for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, a clear linear dependence of the cavity frequency drift on incident optical power. The lowest fractional frequency drift of −3×10−19/s is attained at a transmitted power of 40 nW, with an extrapolated drift approaching zero in the absence of optical power. These demonstrations provide a promising direction to reach a new performance domain for stable lasers, with stability better than 1×10−17 and fractional linear drift below 1×10−19/s.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Oelker, Dr Eric
• Authors: Robinson, J. M., Oelker, E., Milner, W. R., Zhang, W., Legero, T., Matei, D. G., Riehle, F., Sterr, U., and Ye, J.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: Optica
• Publisher: Optical Society of America
• ISSN: 2334-2536
• ISSN (Online): 2334-2536
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2019 Optical Society of America
• First Published: First published in Optica 6(2): 240-243
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy