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arXiv · 1205.4209

Laser locking to the 199Hg clock transition with 5.4x10^(-15)/sqrt(tau) fractional frequency instability

J. J. McFerran·D. V. Magalhaes·C. Mandache·J. Millo·W. Zhang·Y. Le Coq·G. Santarelli·S. Bize
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Abstract

With Hg atoms confined in an optical lattice trap in the Lamb-Dicke regime, we obtain a spectral line at 265.6 nm in which the full-width at half-maximum is <15Hz. Here we lock an ultrastable laser to this ultranarrow clock transition and achieve a fractional frequency stability of 5.4x10^(-15)/sqrt(tau) for tau<=400s. The highly stable laser light used for the atom probing is derived from a 1062.6 nm fiber laser locked to an ultrastable optical cavity that exhibits a mean drift rate of -6.0x10^(-17) s^(-1) (or -16.9 mHz.s^(-1) at 282 THz) over a five month period. A comparison between two such lasers locked to independent optical cavities shows a flicker noise limited fractional frequency instability of 4x10^(-16) per cavity.

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J. J. McFerran, D. V. Magalhaes, C. Mandache, J. Millo, W. Zhang, Y. Le Coq, G. Santarelli, S. Bize. 2012-05-18. Laser locking to the 199Hg clock transition with 5.4x10^(-15)/sqrt(tau) fractional frequency instability. https://doi.org/10.1364/ol.37.003477

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