Frequency modulation technology has been widely used in many fields to get rid of the limitation of the 1/f flicker noise. However, the residual amplitude modulation (RAM) seriously deteriorates the detection accuracy of frequency modulation technology. Especially, for fiber electro-optic modulator (f-EOM), the RAM cannot be minimized by the conventional technique commonly used for free-space EOM such as careful mechanical adjustment or using a wedged crystal EOM. This can limit the use of f-EOM in high-performance detection techniques. In an ultra-stable laser system, the existence of the RAM has become one of the important factors limiting the frequency stability. This paper develops a dual-loop active feedback servo system to minimize the RAM. The voltage and temperature dependence of the EOM are measured to design a suitable active RAM reduction controller. To verify its ability, the active RAM reduction system is placed in an ultra-stable laser system for testing. The RAM noise is suppressed to less than 1 ppm and the corresponding laser frequency stability is 1×10−16. The RAM-reduced frequency stabilization is lower than the thermal noise limit of the reference cavity, so the RAM will not be the main factor affecting the laser frequency stability in the ultra-stable laser system.
As the local oscillator of the space optical clock, the ultra-stable laser determines the short-to-medium-term frequency stability of the space optical clock. Considering the space station’s restrictions on load weight and volume, as well as the impact of vibration and shock during launch, a tunable external cavity diode laser with small size, stable structure and no elastic adjustment device was developed. Optimized the design of the structure of the optical path board, developed small optical components, and developed a double-sided optical path system based on this. Experimental tests show that the free-running line width of the laser is about 175 kHz, which can run stably and reliably for a long time. At the same time, considering the deformation of the optical path substrate in the space microgravity environment, the topology optimization design of the optical board was carried out. Through mechanical simulation analysis, the maximum deformation of the optical path substrate under the influence of gravity is 0.43 μm, which initially meets the requirements of space applications.
Narrow linewidth frequency-stabilized lasers are crucial in the research of optical clocks, precision spectroscopy, and tests of fundamental physics. Narrow linewidth laser with the wavelength of 698nm is essential in the development of Sr atom optical clocks that will be used for the frequency standards in the future. Here we report the recent development of ultra-stable lasers at national time service center, Chinese academy of sciences (NTSC). In the experiment, the frequency of an extended cavity diode laser at the wavelength of 698nm is stabilized to a reference cavity with a finesse of ~130000 using the Pound-Drever-Hall methods. The optical heterodyne beat between two independent lasers shows that the linewidth of one diode laser reaches 0.88Hz. The fractional frequency stability removed linear frequency shift is better than 2×10-15.
Two diode lasers at 698 nm are separately locked to two independent optical reference cavities with a finesse of about 128,000 by the Pound–Drever–Hall method. The more accurate coefficient between voltage and frequency of the error signal is measured, with which quantitative evaluation of the effect of many noises on the frequency stability can be made much more conveniently. A temperature-insensitive method is taken to reduce the effect of residual amplitude modulation on laser frequency stability. With an active fiber noise cancellation, the optical heterodyne beat between two independent lasers shows that the linewidth of one diode laser reaches 1 Hz. The fractional Allan deviation removed linear frequency shift less than 30 mHz/s is below 2.6×10−15 with 1- to 100-s average time.
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