Optical frequency standards based on trapped ions have made great progress over the past decades. In this paper, the design of the optical system for an optical atomic clock based on single 171-ytterbium ion at NIM is proposed. According to the requirements for ionization, cooling, repump, interrogation, and detection, the basic optical system design and frequency stabilization scheme are introduced.
In this paper, a new optical pumping method, redistributing the atom populations among the Zeeman magnetic sublevels of the ground state |F=3> is proposed as the state preparation process to improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the atomic fountain clock with a larger atom population on the |F=3, mF=0>clock state. A preliminary experimental result of state preparation efficiency exceeding 60% is obtained on the NIM6 cesium (Cs) fountain clock.
NIM has built three cesium fountain clocks in Beijing area. NIM5 fountain clock has been reported to BIPM since 2014. The microwave synthesizer and computer control system of NIM5 had been modified recently. The type-B uncertainty is 9×10−16, limited by the interferometric switch in the microwave chain. NIM5-M has been sent to 32 km away from NIM and compared with NIM5 via fiber link. The new NIM6 fountain clock has been built and evaluated, the results are presented in the paper. The direct comparison of NIM5 and NIM6 has also been done, a relative frequency difference of 4.4×10−16 was obtained for 20 days averaging time, consistent with the total uncertainty of the two clocks.
Two strontium optical lattice clocks (Sr1 and Sr2) are being built at National Institute of Metrology(NIM) of China. Sr1 was firstly evaluated in 2015, and later equipped with a new clock laser based on a 30 cm reference cavity, which helped to improve its stability. Sr2 is built on a new campus of NIM, which has some different designs compared to Sr1, for example, a permanent magnets based Zeeman slower, a differential pumping stage, and a robust laser system. A time interleaved self-comparison campaign of Sr2 of more than 7 days shows an up-time of ~90% and a measurement stability of 3.7×10-15/√𝜏 with a 10 cm ULE cavity based clock laser. The link between these two optical clocks, that consists of two fiber optical frequency combs and a 54 km fiber connection, are being constructed. The comparison of these two clocks is planned in the near future.
An ultra-stable microwave (USM) based on an ultra-stable laser (USL) and fiber optical frequency comb (OFC) is built at the National Institute of Metrology (NIM), China. The sum frequency of the carrier envelope offset frequency of FOFC and the beating frequency between the USL and FOFC is stabilized with an 100MHz microwave signal which is controlled by the H master. The error signal controls the pumping laser power through the pumping current and the cavity length by the piezoelectric transducer (PZT). Meanwhile, the error signal is send to the temperature control part of the optical resonant cavity for the long term stability. The stability of the USM is 1.33E-14 at 1s. The whole USM system is much robust, and can continuously running more than 30 days. This USM will be applied as the local oscillator for NIM5 Cs fountain to improve its short term stability.
The ultra-stable microwave (USM) based on ultra-stable laser (USL) and fiber optical frequency comb (OFC) is built at the National Institute of Metrology (NIM), China. The OFC is stabilized with USL by controlling the pumping current and piezoelectric transducer (PZT). Meanwhile, the error signal is send to the temperature control of the optical resonant cavity for the long term locking which enable a more than 30 days continuously running. The second stability is 4E-15. By controlling the driving frequency of the AOM, the long term stability of H master is transmitted to the USM. This USM will be applied as the local oscillator for NIM5 Cs fountain to improve its short term stability.
An ultra-stable microwave based on ultra-stable laser and fiber optical frequency comb (FOFC) is built at the National Institute of Metrology China (NIM). The repetition rate (fr) of FOFC is stabilized by stabilizing the sum of the carrier envelope of set frequency (fceo) of FOFC and the beating frequency between the ultra-stable laser and FOFC. A current feedback with 30 kHz bandwidth and a piezoelectric transducer (PZT) with 1 kHz bandwidth are applied for the feedback locking. The frequency jitter of the stabilized sum frequency is about 4 Hz. The short time stability of fr is calculated better than 1E-14. This ultra-stable microwave will be applied as local oscillator for NIM5 Cs fountain to improve its short term stability.
We present a laser system design for an absolute gravimeter based on 87Rb atom interferometer. By skillful design, lasers with 9 different frequencies are based on two diode lasers including tapered amplifier. Two electrical feedback systems are used for laser frequency stabilization and the Raman lasers generation respectively. All other lasers are based on two Raman lasers and realized with frequency shift by acoustic optical modulators. This laser system not only has the compact and simple construction, but meets all requirements for laser power and frequency controlling for the atom interferometer. It has the characteristic of reliability and integrity.
We present a narrow linewidth laser by optical feedback from a high-finesse F-P cavity. The cavity transmission feeds
back to the laser diode by the external ring path. With a low servo bandwidth system, the feedback phase is compensated
for maintaining the optical feedback operation. The linewidth of the optical feedback laser is reduced to 100 Hz, and the
laser frequency noise in frequency range of 1 Hz to 10 kHz is suppression over 50 dB. It experimentally demonstrates
the excellent characteristics of optical feedback technique.
The recent evaluation of the second cesium fountain NIM5 at National Institute of Metrology(NIM) shows a total
relative uncertainty of 2×10-15. The strontium optical clock project has successfully transferred atoms from broad line
cooling to narrow line cooling. About 10788Sr atoms have been cooled down to 2uK, ready to be loaded into 1
dimensional (1D) optical lattice. The clock transition interrogation laser is locked to a horizontally oriented high finesse
cavity. The linewidth of this laser is reduced to 100Hz level. A fiber based optical frequency comb is being built, which
can be used to synthesize ultra-stable microwave frequency for the fountains in the future.
In Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) fiber communication system, more and more channels have to be put into a single fiber in order to fulfil the ever-increasing demand for high capacity. This put strict requirements on the wavelength characteristics of various active and passive optical components. Generally speaking, in current DWDM system, a wavelength accuracy of 5pm is necessary for analyzing channel performance, and 0.5 pm is required for the aging test of components. An extended cavity laser diode (ECLD) frequency stabilized to saturated absorption lines of acetylene C2H2 with a potential long term frequency stability of 10-12 can provide excellent wavelength reference for DWDM communication system[1][2][3]. In this paper, we describe a practical 1.5µm wavelength transfer standard based on C2H2 stabilized DFB laser and tunable fiber Fabry-Perot etalon[4]. This transfer standard is suitable for the calibration of widely used optical spectrum analyzers (OSA) and wavelength/multi-wavelengths meters. This device is currently under development in the Quantum Division ofNational Institute of Metrology (NIM).
In this paper we present the distance scale calibration of optical fiber Optical Time Domain Reflectometers (OTDR) using the optical time-delay recirculating line approach. Particularly we demonstrate the optical modulation - phase-shift technique to measure the length of the standard fiber which formed the loop of the delay line. Two stages of modulations of 10 KHz and 1 MHz were used to achieve, step-by-step, the final optical length uncertainty of less than 0.02m+1.20 X 10-6. The length measurement results were self-checked and they are well within the quoted uncertainty. With the calibrated delay recirculating-line as a transfer standard the distance scale of the OTDRs is verified to the uncertainty of about 2 x 10-5, depending on the OTDRs’ performance.
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