Abstract
We characterize the frequency sensitivity of a cavity-stabilized laser to inertial forces and temperature fluctuations, and perform real-time feedforward to correct for these sources of noise. We measure the sensitivity of the cavity to linear accelerations, rotational accelerations, and rotational velocities by rotating it about three axes with accelerometers and gyroscopes positioned around the cavity. The worst-direction linear acceleration sensitivity of the cavity is g measured over 0–50 Hz, which is reduced by a factor of 50 to below g for low-frequency accelerations by real-time feedforward corrections of all of the aforementioned inertial forces. A similar idea is demonstrated in which laser frequency drift due to temperature fluctuations is reduced by a factor of 70 via real-time feedforward from a temperature sensor located on the outer wall of the cavity vacuum chamber.
2 More- Received 31 December 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.87.023829
Published by the American Physical Society
Synopsis
Accelerating the Stability of Lasers
Published 21 February 2013
By measuring the inertial forces that act on a laser system, researchers have been able to increase the stability of frequency emission by an order of magnitude over previous methods.
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