Lasing and suppressed cavity-pulling effect of Cesium active optical clock

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a Cesium-based active optical clock with suppressed cavity-pulling effect, leading to improved stability and potential for next-generation optical clocks.

Contribution

It experimentally shows suppressed cavity pulling in a four-level Cesium active optical clock, enhancing frequency stability compared to traditional optical clocks.

Findings

Cavity pulling effect reduced by factors of 38.2 and 41.4

Output power reaches 13 μW at 1469.9 nm

Lasing threshold observed with increased pump intensity

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the collective emission behavior and suppressed cavity-pulling effect of four-level active optical clock with Cesium atoms. Thermal Cesium atoms in a glass cell velocity selective pumped with a 455.5 nm laser operating at 6S$_{1/2}$ to 7P$_{3/2}$ transition are used as lasing medium. Population inverted Cesium atoms between 7S$_{1/2}$ and 6P$_{3/2}$ levels are optical weakly coupled by a pair cavity mirrors working at deep bad-cavity regime with a finesse of 4.3, and the ratio between cavity bandwidth and gain bandwidth is approximately 45. With increased 455.5 nm pumping laser intensity, the output power of cesium active optical clock at 1469.9 nm from 7S$_{1/2}$ level to 6P$_{3/2}$ level shows a threshold and reach a power of 13 $\mu$W. Active optical clock would dramatically improve the optical clock stability since the lasing frequency does not follow the cavity length variation exactly, but in a form of suppressed cavity pulling effect. In this letter the cavity pulling effect is measured using a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) to be reduced by a factor of 38.2 and 41.4 as the detuning between the 1469.9 nm cavity length of the Cs active optical clock and the Cs 1469.9 nm transition is set to be 140.8 MHz and 281.6 MHz respectively. The mechanism demonstrated here is of great significance for new generation optical clocks and can be applied to improve the stability of best optical clocks by at least two orders of magnitude.