Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Annual Meeting of the Four Corners Section of the APS
Volume 58, Number 12
Friday–Saturday, October 18–19, 2013; Denver, Colorado
Session C1: AMOI: Atomic Clocks and Frequency Combs |
Hide Abstracts |
Chair: Brian Anderson, University of Arizona Room: 151 |
Friday, October 18, 2013 11:00AM - 11:24AM |
C1.00001: Frequency combs for optical clocks and low-noise oscillators Invited Speaker: Scott Diddams The optical frequency comb from a femtosecond mode-locked laser has become an indispensible tool for high-precision optical frequency metrology and as the clockwork for optical atomic clocks. Beyond precision timing applications, optical frequency combs are also used for ultraviolet and infrared spectroscopy, optical waveform generation, and the calibration of astronomical spectrographs. The wide utility of the frequency comb stems from the fact that it forms a phase-coherent link between optical and microwave domains in a simple, compact, and robust manner. When stabilized to an optical frequency reference, the various modes of the frequency comb can be used individually as ultrastable optical references, or they can be combined to synthesize pure tones or even waveforms with low phase noise in the microwave domain This talk will focus on the description of experiments at NIST in which frequency combs are used to count the petahertz oscillations of optical clocks, as well as to generate the lowest noise microwave timing signals ever produced. A new generation of chip-scale frequency combs based on nonlinear parametric oscillation in high-Q micro-resonators will also be described.\\[4pt] In collaboration with Tara Fortier, Scott Papp, and Franklyn Quinlan, National Institute of Standards and Technology. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 18, 2013 11:24AM - 11:48AM |
C1.00002: Nested Frequency Combs Invited Speaker: Jean Claude Diels Simple etalons inserted in a laser cavity are used to tune the wavelength of a laser. Inserting that element inside a mode-locked laser leads to a frequency comb with counter-intuitive features. Instead of a decaying sequence of pulses, the etalon produces a symmetric bunch of pulses, at a repetition rate in the GHz range, that can be fine tuned with the laser cavity length. The wavelength of the laser--as in the cw case--can be tuned with the angle of the etalon. However, the high and low frequency components of the repetition rate are both modified with the angle of incidence. Insertion of the Fabry-Perot results in a much larger modification of the laser cavity round-trip time than would be expected from the modification in optical path. Finally, the repetition rate of the laser has a much stronger dependence on the pump pulse power after insertion of the Fabry-Perot. The application of this research is in repetition rate spectroscopy (tuning the repetition rate of a laser to hit a vibrational resonance). There are applications in metrology, communications and astronomy where very high, tunable, repetition rates are desirable.\\[4pt] In collaboration with Ladan Arissian and Koji Masuda, University of New Mexico. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 18, 2013 11:48AM - 12:00PM |
C1.00003: A New Record in Atomic Clock Performance Travis Nicholson, Benjamin Bloom, Jason Williams, Sara Campbell, Michael Bishof, Xibo Zhang, Wei Zhang, Sarah Bromley, Jun Ye The exquisite control exhibited over quantum states of individual particles has revolutionized the field of precision measurement, as exemplified by highly accurate atomic clocks. Two classes of clocks have outperformed the Cs primary standard in both accuracy and precision: single-ion clocks and many-atom lattice clocks. Historically single-ion clocks have been at least 20 times more accurate than lattice clocks, and the two systems have demonstrated comparable precision. In this presentation we announce the first lattice clock that has surpassed single-ion clocks in both precision and accuracy. With the best reported accuracy and precision, lattice clocks are now a strong candidate as a primary frequency standard. This work paves the way for a better realization of SI units, the development of more sophisticated quantum sensors, and precision tests of the fundamental laws of nature. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 18, 2013 12:00PM - 12:12PM |
C1.00004: A ``Nearly-Lightless'' Laser Kevin Cox, Justin Bohnet, Joshua Weiner, Matthew Norcia, Zilong Chen, James Thompson Bad-cavity (superradiant) lasers using highly forbidden atomic transitions are predicted to achieve coherence lengths on the order of the earth-sun distance, potentially improving optical atomic clocks and other precision measurements. We have realized a proof-of-principle cold-atom Raman laser operating deep into the superradiant regime, where the atomic linewidth is much narrower than the cavity linewidth. Here we present experiments using a superradiant laser including active and passive sensing of external fields, laser stability to external perturbations, and studies of phase synchronization between two sub-ensembles. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 18, 2013 12:12PM - 12:24PM |
C1.00005: Scheme for locking cooling and slowing lasers for a silicon magneto-optical trap Sam Ronald, Jonathan Gilbert, William Fairbank, Siu Au Lee An attractive design for scalable quantum computer architectures has been proposed by Bruce Kane using single dopants in a crystal lattice. We are working on a magneto-optical trap (MOT) for single silicon atoms as a source for precise single ion implantation. Our laser systems operate at 221.74 nm utilizing frequency quadrupling of a Ti:Sapphire ring laser. The Zeeman slowing laser for cooling atoms in a silicon atomic beam has been locked to a molecular tellurium reference line for long term frequency stability. A portion of the second harmonic beam from the Zeeman slowing laser is acousto-optically shifted and used to lock the laser to a weak molecular tellurium absorption line. A portion of the unshifted second harmonic beam is overlapped with a portion of the second harmonic output of our main trapping laser system for the MOT to create a heterodyne beat note that is used to set our trapping laser detuning. In this talk I will discuss the setup for laser locking and present saturation spectra of molecular tellurium as referenced to the 221.74 nm transition in silicon, observed in the silicon beam and in a hollow cathode discharge. [Preview Abstract] |
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2024 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700