arXiv subjects

Jingbiao Chen

Publications and source records attributed to Jingbiao Chen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Dual-Faraday-laser-pumped cesium beam clock with $7.7\times 10^{-13}/\sqrt\tau$ frequency stability

Compact cesium beam clocks are major frequency references for deployable timing systems. However, further improvement of their short-term frequency stability is limited by the clock signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Although two-laser optical pumping can increase the effective atomic utilization, the achievable clock SNR has long been limited by laser-induced frequency-to-amplitude noise conversion. Here, we demonstrate a compact dual-Faraday-laser-pumped (DFP) Cs beam clock enabled by a low-frequency-noise atom-referenced laser architecture. The intracavity Faraday anomalous dispersion optical filter provides inherent alignment to the Cs D$_2$ resonances, while modulation transfer spectroscopy offers suppressed frequency noise and drift. The resulting laser system supports robust turnkey operation with a Lorentzian linewidth of 2.12 kHz. The DFP Cs clock achieves a clock SNR of 46,365 in a 1-Hz bandwidth and a fractional Allan deviation of $7.7\times 10^{-13}/\sqrt\tau$ , with Hadamard deviation reaching $7.7\times 10^{-15}$ at 10,000 s. This work pushes the fractional frequency stability of a compact Cs beam clock into the $10^{-13}/\sqrt\tau$ regime, providing a pathway toward high-performance Cs frequency references for field-deployable precision timing, navigation, and synchronization.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2025

Diffuse Laser Cooling Based on the $6\mathrm{P}_{3/2}$ Excited State of Rubidium Atoms via 420 nm Blue Light

To date, the laser cooling of rubidium atoms has inevitably relied on 780 nm cooling light corresponding to the first excited state $5\mathrm{P}_{3/2}$. Surprisingly, we demonstrate laser cooling directly utilizing 420 nm blue light for active optical clock, which corresponds to the high excited state $6\mathrm{P}_{3/2}$ of Rb atom. Experimentally, we successfully apply the 420 nm diffuse laser cooling technique to prepare a cold $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atomic cloud with a length of up to one meter, and measure the cold-atom absorption spectroscopy. The cold atom number is approximately $4.4\times10^{7}$. We systematically compare the cooling effects of 420 nm and 780 nm diffuse laser cooling, and verify the feasibility of blue light cooling using high excited state. This work directly employs blue light to cool and manipulate ground-state Rb atoms to the 6P excited state, providing a new and efficient approach for the cold-atom active optical clock. It is also expected to open up research directions and application prospects in frontier fields such as Rydberg atoms, ultracold quantum gases Bose-Einstein condensation, quantum information, and so on.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2025

Practical 1-um GHz fiber comb on silica-based platform

We present a fully stabilized 1-GHz Yb-fiber laser frequency comb built on silica substrates, utilizing "optical cubes" to house all optical components, ensuring long-term stability and practical operation. Both the femtosecond laser and f-to-2f interferometer are constructed to silica bricks, with a compact footprint of 290 mm * 250 mm, and a total weight of 1.8 kg. This system provides a stable repetition rate, offset frequency, and a supercontinuum spanning 460-1560 nm without requiring amplification. The carrier-envelop offset frequency exhibits exceptional in-loop stability, with a fractional frequency instability of 3.07* 10^(-18) at a 1 second averaging time, improving to 2.12*10^(-20) at a 10,000 second, maintaining uninterrupted operation for over 60 hours. This work demonstrates a high-performance GHz fiber-based frequency comb, paving the way for applications beyond laboratory environments, including dual-comb spectroscopy, astronomical spectrograph calibration, and portable optical clocks.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Investigating the $4D_{3/2}|3,\pm2\rangle$--$4D_{5/2}|3,\pm2\rangle$ transition in Nb$^{4+}$ for a THz atomic clock

In this work, the $4D_{3/2}|3,\pm2\rangle \rightarrow 4D_{5/2}|3,\pm2\rangle$ transition in the Nb$^{4+}$ ion is identified as a promising candidate for a terahertz (THz) atomic clock, with the transition frequency occurring at 56.0224 THz. This transition is primarily driven by the magnetic dipole decay channel, which can easily be accessed by a laser. We focus on the stable $^{93}$Nb isotope, which has 100\% natural abundance and a nuclear spin of $I=9/2$ for experimental advantage. Our data analysis allows us to estimate potential systematic shifts in the proposed clock system, including those due to blackbody radiation, electric quadrupole, second-order Zeeman, and second-order Doppler {shifts}. {The scheme presented in this study can help suppress the AC Stark and electric quadrupole shifts in the clock frequency measurement.} {All these analyses} suggest that the proposed THz atomic clock using Nb$^{4+}$ could be valuable in both quantum thermometry and frequency metrology.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2025

Compact 780 nm Rb Optical Clock

We demonstrated a compact 780 nm rubidium optical clock, which includes an optical frequency standard and an optical frequency comb, with an optical volume of 11.6 liters. Unlike the 778 nm rubidium atomic clocks based on two-photon transition, here, the laser frequency is stabilized to the Rb D2 transition, using modulation transfer spectroscopy. This approach effectively eliminates Doppler background and provides a high signal to noise ratio and high sensitivity. A nearly 300 MHz microwave signal, whose phase exactly tracks that of the optical frequency standard, is generated via the optical frequency comb, yielding a frequency instability of 1.91 E-13 @1 s and 5.29 E-14 @1000 s in the electronic domain. To the best of our knowledge, this is the most precise frequency stabilization result for the first-excited-state transition of alkali metal atoms to date and represents the first optical clock based on this transition. These results offer a promising approach for the development of portable optical clocks.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Velocity-comb modulation transfer spectroscopy

Sub-Doppler laser spectroscopy is a crucial technique for laser frequency stabilization, playing a significant role in atomic physics, precision measurement, and quantum communication. However, recent efforts to improve frequency stability appear to have reached a bottleneck, as they primarily focus on external technical approaches while neglecting the fundamental issue of low atomic utilization (< 1%), caused by only near-zero transverse velocity atoms involved in the transition. Here, we propose a velocity-comb modulation transfer spectroscopy (MTS) solution that takes advantage of the velocity-selective resonance effect of multi-frequency comb lasers to enhance the utilization of non-zero-velocity atoms. In the probe-pump configuration, each pair of counter-propagating lasers interacts with atoms from different transverse velocity-comb groups, independently contributing to the spectral amplitude and signal-to-noise ratio. Preliminary proof-of-principle results show that the frequency stability of the triple-frequency laser is optimized by nearly a factor of \sqrt{3} compared to the single-frequency laser, consistent with theoretical expectations. With more frequency comb components, MTS-stabilized lasers are expected to achieve order-of-magnitude breakthroughs in frequency stability, taking an important step toward next-generation compact optical clocks. This unique method can also be widely applied to any quantum system with a wide velocity distribution, inspiring innovative advances in numerous fields with a fresh perspective.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2024

Single-Atomic-Ensemble Dual-Wavelength Optical Standard

We demonstrate a dual wavelength optical frequency standard based on the dual optical transition modulation transfer spectroscopy (DOTMTS) between different quantum transitions of the rubidium D1 (795 nm) and D2 (780 nm) lines. In a single rubidium atomic ensemble, modulation frequency sidebands from the 780 nm pump beam are simultaneously transferred to both the 780 nm and 795 nm probe lasers. The DOTMTS enables the simultaneous stabilization of 780 nm and 795 nm lasers on a single vapor cell. Both lasers exhibit a frequency instability in the low 10 ^(-14) range at 1 s of averaging, as estimated from the residual error signal. A theoretical model is developed based on the V type atomic level structure to illustrate the dual-wavelength spectroscopy. This approach can be extended to develop a multiwavelength optical frequency standard within a single atomic ensemble, broadening its applicability in fields such as precision metrology, wavelength standards, optical networks, and beyond.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Faraday laser pumped cesium beam clock

We realize a high-performance compact optically pumped cesium beam clock using Faraday laser simultaneously as pumping and detection lasers. The Faraday laser, which is frequency stabilized by modulation transfer spectroscopy (MTS) technique, has narrow linewidth and superior frequency stability. Measured by optical heterodyne method between two identical systems, the linewidth of the Faraday laser is 2.5 kHz after MTS locking, and the fractional frequency stability of the Faraday laser is optimized to $1.8\times{10}^{-12}/\sqrtτ$. Based on this high-performance Faraday laser, the cesium beam clock realizes a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in 1 Hz bandwidth of $39600$ when the cesium oven temperature is 130°C. Frequency-compared with Hydrogen maser, the fractional frequency stability of the Faraday laser pumped cesium beam clock can reach $1.3\times{10}^{-12}/\sqrtτ$ and drops to $1.4\times{10}^{-14}$ at 10000 s when the cesium oven temperature is 110°C. %, which is the best reported result compared with other cesium beam clocks. This Faraday laser pumped cesium beam clock demonstrates its excellent performance, and its great potential in the fields of timekeeping, navigation, and communication. Meanwhile, the Faraday laser, as a high-performance optical frequency standard, can also contribute to the development of other applications in quantum metrology, precision measurement and atomic physics.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2024

A corner-cube-feedback Faraday laser with 8 kHz linewidth

A single-mode Cs atom 852 nm Faraday laser based on the corner cube feedback is demonstrated, and termed as corner-cube-feedback Faraday laser. Using the corner-cube retroreflector as external cavity feedback element in Faraday laser, mechanical robustness can be greatly improved due to the precise reflection of the incident light beam back to its original direction. This Faraday laser can achieve laser oscillation at a large angle, which between the incident light and the optical axis of corner cube, ranging from +3° to -3°. The most probable linewidth is 8 kHz measured by heterodyne beating with two identical lasers. Moreover, its output frequency remains close to the Cs atomic Doppler-broadened transition line, even though the diode current changes from 55 mA to 155 mA and the diode working temperature varies from 11.8 to 37.2 degrees Celsius. The corner-cube-feedback Faraday laser with high mechanical robustness as well as narrow linewidth can be widely used in quantum precision measurement, such as atomic clocks, atomic gravimeters, and atomic magnetometers, etc.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Dual-frequency optical-microwave atomic clocks based on cesium atoms

$^{133}$Cs, which is the only stable cesium (Cs) isotope, is one of the most investigated elements in atomic spectroscopy and was used to realize the atomic clock in 1955. Among all atomic clocks, the cesium atomic clock has a special place, since the current unit of time is based on a microwave transition in the Cs atom. In addition, the long lifetime of the $6{\text{P}}_{3/2}$ state and simple preparation technique of Cs vapor cells have great relevance to quantum and atom optics experiments, which suggests the use of the $6{\text{S}} - 6{\text{P}}$ D2 transition as an optical frequency standard. In this work, using one laser as the local oscillator and Cs atoms as the quantum reference, we realized two atomic clocks in the optical and microwave frequencies, respectively. Both clocks could be freely switched or simultaneously output. The optical clock based on the vapor cell continuously operated with a frequency stability of $3.89 \times {10^{ - 13}}$ at 1 s, decreasing to $2.17 \times {10^{ - 13}}$ at 32 s, which was frequency stabilized by modulation transfer spectroscopy and estimated by an optical comb. Then, applying this stabilized laser for an optically pumped Cs beam atomic clock to reduce the laser frequency noise, we obtained a microwave clock with a frequency stability of $1.84 \times {10^{ - 12}}/\sqrt τ$, reaching $5.99 \times {10^{ - 15}}$ at $10^5$ s. This study demonstrates an attractive feature for the commercialization and deployment of optical and microwave clocks and will guide further development of integrated atomic clocks with better stability. Thus, this study lays the groundwork for future quantum metrology and laser physics.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2023

An extremely bad-cavity laser

Lasing in the bad-cavity regime has promising applications in precision measurement and frequency metrology due to the reduced sensitivity of the laser frequency to cavity length fluctuations. Thus far, relevant studies have been mainly focused on conventional cavities whose finesse is high enough that the resonance linewidth is sufficiently narrow compared to the cavity's free spectral range, though still in the bad-cavity regime. However, lasing output from the cavity whose finesse is close to the limit of 2 has never been experimentally accessed. Here, we demonstrate an extremely bad-cavity laser, analyze the physical mechanisms limiting cavity finesse, and report on the worst ever laser cavity with finesse reaching 2.01. The optical cavity has a reflectance close to zero and only provides a weak optical feedback. The laser power can be as high as tens of $μ$W and the spectral linewidth reaches a few kHz, over one thousand times narrower than the gain bandwidth. In addition, the measurement of cavity pulling reveals a pulling coefficient of 0.0148, the lowest value ever achieved for a continuous wave laser. Our findings open up an unprecedentedly innovative perspective for future new ultra-stable lasers, which could possibly trigger the future discoveries in optical clocks, cavity QED, continuous wave superradiant laser, and explorations of quantum manybody physics.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Prospective of Zr$^{3+}$ ion as a THz atomic clock

We demonstrate transition between the fine structure splitting of the ground state of triply ionized zirconium (Zr IV) is suitable for a terahertz (THz) atomic clock. Its transition frequency is about 37.52 THz and is mainly guided by the magnetic dipole (M1) transition and can be accessible by a readily available laser. We suggest to consider stable even isotopes of Zr and $M_J= \pm 1/2$ sublevels (i.e. $|4D_{3/2},M_J=\pm 1/2\rangle \rightarrow |4D_{5/2},M_J=\pm 1/2\rangle$ clock transition) for the experimental advantage. By performing necessary calculations, we have estimated possible systematics due to blackbody radiation, ac Stark, electric quadrupole and second-order Zeeman shifts along with shifts due to the second-order Doppler effects. The proposed THz atomic clock can be very useful in quantum thermometry and frequency metrology.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2023

A Voigt laser operating on $^{87}$Rb 780 nm transition

We report the development of laser systems -- a "Voigt laser" -- using a Voigt anomalous dispersion optical filter as the frequency-selective element, working at the wavelength of 780 nm of $^{87}$Rb-D2 resonance line. Compared with Faraday anomalous dispersion optical filter, the Voigt anomalous dispersion optical filter can generate a stronger and more uniform magnetic field with a compact size of magnet, and obtains a transmission spectrum with narrower linewidth and more stable lineprofile. In this case, the frequency stability of the Voigt laser reaches 5$\times$10$^{-9}$ at the averaging time of 200 s, and the wavelength fluctuation of 8-hours free operation is $\pm$0.1 pm. Besides, the Voigt laser has greater immunity to diode current than the Faraday laser, with a wavelength fluctuation of $\pm$0.5 pm in the current range from 73 mA to 150 mA. Finally, the Voigt laser frequency can be controlled by the cell temperature of the Voigt optical filter, which is expected to achieve a frequency detuning of 20 GHz. Consequently, the Voigt laser, whose frequency could correspond to the atomic transition frequency by tuning the cell temperature, obtains good robustness to the current and temperature fluctuation of laser diode, and could realize a compact optical standard for precise measurement once stabilized by modulation transfer spectroscopy.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2022

Entanglement-enhanced Synchronous differential comparison

The quantum entanglement enables the precision measurement and frequency metrology beyond the standard quantum limit that is imposed by the quantum projection noise and photon shot noise. Here we propose employing the entangled atoms in the synchronous differential measurement to enhance the sensitivity of the spatial-shift detection. Two ways of engineering the entangled atoms are studied. The synchronous comparison between two pixels within an entangled atomic cloud leads to a sensitivity enhancement factor of 1.4 over the standard quantum limit. Increasing the atom number hardly further improves the sensitivity. In contrast, the synchronous comparison between two independent pixels that are individually composed of entangled atoms allows for a strong sensitivity enhancement by a factor of, for example, 9.7 with $10^{3}$ entangled atoms in each pixel, corresponding to a reduction of the averaging time by a factor of about $10^{2}$. A large atom number may further elevate the sensitivity. Our work paves the way towards the entanglement-enhanced detection of the gravitational redshift by means of the \emph{in situ} imaging spectroscopy.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

An inhibited laser

Traditional lasers function using resonant cavities, in which the round-trip optical path is exactly equal to an integer multiple of the intracavity wavelengths to constructively enhance the spontaneous emission rate. By taking advantage of the enhancement from the resonant cavity, the narrowest sub-10-mHz-linewidth laser and a $10^{-16}$-fractional-frequency-stability superradiant active optical clock (AOC) have been achieved. However, a laser with atomic spontaneous radiation being destructively inhibited in an anti-resonant cavity, where the atomic resonance is exactly between two adjacent cavity resonances, has not been reported. Herein, we experimentally demonstrate inhibited stimulated emission and termed it an inhibited laser. Compared with traditional superradiant AOCs, which exhibit superiority in terms of the high suppression of cavity noise, the suppression of the cavity-pulling effect of an inhibited laser can be further improved by a factor of $(2F/pi)^2$, i.e., 2.07 in this work, which was improved from 26 to 53 times. This study will guide further development of AOCs with better stability, and thus, it is significant for quantum metrology and may lead to new research in the laser physics and cavity quantum electrodynamics fields.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Compact 459 nm Cs cell optical frequency standard with $2.1\times{10}^{-13}/\sqrtτ$ short-term stability

We achieve a compact optical frequency standard with an extended cavity diode laser locked to the 459 nm 6S$_{1/2}$ - 7P$_{1/2}$ transition of thermal $^{133}$Cs atoms in a $ϕ$ 10 mm $\times$ 50 mm glass cell, using modulation transfer spectroscopy (MTS). The self-estimated frequency stability of this laser is $1.4\times{10}^{-14}/\sqrtτ$. With heterodyne measurement, we verify the linewidth-narrowing effect of MTS locking and measure the frequency stability of the locked laser. The linewidth of each laser is reduced from the free-running 69.6 kHz to 10.3 kHz after MTS stabilization, by a factor of 6.75. The Allan deviation measured via beat detection is $2.1\times{10}^{-13}/\sqrtτ$ for each MTS-stabilized laser. In addition, we measure the hyperfine structure of the 7P$_{1/2}$ energy level based on the heterodyne measurements, and calculate the magnetic dipole constant $A$ of the Cs 7P$_{1/2}$ level to be 94.38(6) MHz, which agrees well with previous measurements. This compact optical frequency standard can also be used in other applications that require high-stability lasers, such as laser interferometry, laser cooling, geodesy, and so on.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2021

Highly charged Nd$^{9+}$ Ion: A potential candidate of $\upmu$Hz linewidth optical clocks for probing fundamental physics

An active optical clock based on highly charged Nd$^{9+}$ ion is proposed for the first time. The clock can offer ultra-narrow linewidth at the $\upmu$Hz-level which is more than two-order of magnitude below the currently recorded laser linewidth. Operating at 605(90) nm superradiation lasing transition between the $5p^2~4f$ ground state and one of the long-lived $5p~4f^2$ excited state, the proposed active clock is inherently immune against the cavity noise which provides high stability. The clock serves as a sensitive probe with high sensitivity to variation of the fine-structure constant with accuracies below 10$^{-19}$ level. Sophisticated relativistic many-body methods are employed to predict related atomic properties that have corroborated the above findings.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2020

Prospects for 10^{-18} Instability Laser Referenced on Thermal Atomic Ensembles

A thermal atomic ensemble-based laser source with superior frequency stability is proposed that relies on the accumulated contributions from an abundance of nonzero-transverse-velocity atomic ensembles. Compared with the traditional case in which only atoms with near-zero transverse velocities are utilized, the amplitude of the optical Ramsey fringes for a thermal calcium beam can be dramatically enhanced by three orders of magnitude or more, thus, the signal-to-noise ratio can be improved 33-fold. Based on the recent results of atomic interferometry-based laser stabilization, a quantum projection noise-limited frequency instability less than 2E-17/tau^0.5 is feasible. Such an ultrastable laser has promising applications in diverse areas, including metrology and astronomy.

physics.atom-ph↗