A modified Michelson interferometer type Raman laser system for atom interferometers

TL;DR

This paper presents a modified Michelson interferometer Raman laser system for cold atom interferometry, achieving high spectral purity and phase stability, suitable for precision measurements like acceleration and rotation.

Contribution

Introduces a novel modified Michelson interferometer Raman laser system with phase noise compensation for improved atom interferometry performance.

Findings

Linewidth of 1Hz at 6.834 GHz achieved

RMS phase variance of 0.015 rad^2 measured

System shows potential for high-precision inertial sensing

Abstract

We have developed a modified Michelson interferometer type Raman laser system to manipulate cold 87 Rb atoms to interfere. A frequency modulated continuous wave technique was introduced to determine the optical path difference, thus compensating it to zero to minimize the effects of common mode noise. The linewidth (full width at half maximum) of the beat signal at 6.834 GHz was measured to 1Hz limited by the resolution bandwidth of the spectral analyzer. The measured rms phase variance of the phase noise at 166 MHz was 0.015 rad2, mainly restricted by our poor performance radio frequency microwave source. With modest improvements, we plan to apply this laser system to form an atom interferometer for acceleration and rotation measurements.