arXiv subjects

Stephan Hannig

Publications and source records attributed to Stephan Hannig.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Miniaturized vacuum package for magneto-optical trapping of strontium

Quantum sensors, like optical lattice clocks, undergo a continuous development from lab-based towards mobile systems. A key aspect in the miniaturization of the experimental setups is the development of compact atom sources. Conventional atom sources for alkaline-earth-like elements consist of a high-power oven and a six-beam magneto-optical trap (MOT) inside of vacuum chamber with extensive flanges, viewports and electrical feedthroughs. Here we present a highly compact vacuum package utilizing key technologies for future quantum sensor systems: A chip-based low-power atomic oven, a planar grating MOT chip, and a miniaturized vacuum pump all held inside an additively manufactured titanium vacuum chamber, featuring custom-sized vacuum flanges. In this miniaturized setup, spanning a volume of only 750 ml, we trap up to $10^5$ Sr atoms in a MOT, requiring an oven heating power below 1 W.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2026

Generation of continuous-wave laser light at 148.4 nm using cavity-enhanced second harmonic generation in $BaMgF_4$

We experimentally investigate the potential of $BaMgF_4$ crystals to create a continuous-wave (CW) solid state laser at the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) wavelength of 148.4 nm via cavity-enhanced second harmonic generation. This investigation is motivated by the development of a nuclear optical clock based on a transition between the ground and isomeric state in the $^{229}Th$ nucleus. For this purpose, a $BaMgF_4$ crystal was grown, optically polished and periodically poled. The crystal was inserted into a power-enhancement cavity, resonant at the fundamental wavelength of 296.8 nm and the generated laser light at 148.4 nm was characterized. Within this proof-of-concept investigation, a VUV output power of typically ($16\pm1$) pW is obtained. This marks the first time that this type of crystal is used to generate VUV laser light. The experimental findings are compared to theoretical expectations and provide a clear path for future improvements.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

A tunable, continuous-wave 130-mW laser at 213 nm

We present a tunable, continuous-wave (CW) laser system emitting at 213 nm, based on the frequency quadrupling of a single Ti:sapph laser. The setup features two sequential, cavity-enhanced second-harmonic generation (SHG) stages. The first stage uses an LBO crystal and achieves a conversion efficiency of over 80%, yielding up to 3.3 W at 426 nm. The second stage employs a Brewster-cut BBO crystal with an elliptical beam waist to mitigate UV-induced degradation, producing up to 130 mW of deep UV light. The system demonstrates stable operation over several hours and is well suited for applications in atomic physics, spectroscopy, and materials science.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2022

Phase-stabilized UV light at 267 nm through twofold second harmonic generation

Providing phase stable laser light is important to extend the interrogation time of optical clocks towards many seconds and thus achieve small statistical uncertainties. We report a laser system providing more than 50 uW phase-stabilized UV light at 267.4 nm for an aluminium ion optical clock. The light is generated by frequency-quadrupling a fibre laser at 1069.6 nm in two cascaded non-linear crystals, both in single-pass configuration. In the first stage, a 10 mm long PPLN waveguide crystal converts 1 W fundamental light to more than 0.2 W at 534.8 nm. In the following 50 mm long DKDP crystal, more than 50 uW of light at 267.4 nm are generated. An upper limit for the passive short-term phase stability has been measured by a beat-node measurement with an existing phase-stabilized quadrupling system employing the same source laser. The resulting fractional frequency instability of less than 5 x 10^-17 after 1 s supports lifetime-limited probing of the 27Al^+ clock transition, given a sufficiently stable laser source. A further improved stability of the fourth harmonic light is expected through interferometric path length stabilisation of the pump light by back-reflecting it through the entire setup and correcting for frequency deviations. The in-loop error signal indicates an electronically limited instability of 1 x 10^-18 at 1 s.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2017

On-Line Estimation of Local Oscillator Noise and Optimisation of Servo Parameters in Atomic Clocks

For atomic frequency standards in which fluctuations of the local oscillator (LO) frequency are the dominant noise source, we examine the role of the servo algorithm that predicts and corrects these frequency fluctuations. We derive the optimal linear prediction algorithm, showing how to measure the relevant spectral properties of the noise and optimise servo parameters while the standard is running, using only the atomic error signal. We find that, for realistic LO noise spectra, a conventional integrating servo with a properly chosen gain performs nearly as well as the optimal linear predictor. Using simple analytical models and numerical simulations, we establish optimum probe times as a function of clock atom number and of the dominant noise type in the local oscillator. We calculate the resulting LO-dependent scaling of achievable clock stability with atom number for product states as well as for maximally-correlated states.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2015

High-bandwidth transfer of phase stability through a fiber frequency comb

We demonstrate phase locking of a 729 nm diode laser to a 1542 nm master laser via an erbium-doped-fiber frequency comb, using a transfer-oscillator feedforward scheme which suppresses the effect of comb noise in an unprecedented 1.8 MHz bandwidth. We illustrate its performance by carrying out coherent manipulations of a trapped calcium ion with 99 % fidelity even at few-microsecond timescales. We thus demonstrate that transfer-oscillator locking can provide sufficient phase stability for high-fidelity quantum logic manipulation even without pre-stabilization of the slave diode laser.

physics.optics↗