Year: 2022
Type: preprint
Abstract: Ultrastable lasers form the back bone of precision measurements in science and technology. Such lasers attain their stability through frequency locking to reference cavities. State-of-the-art locking performances to date had been achieved using frequency-modulation based methods, complemented with active drift cancellation systems. We demonstrate an all passive, modulation-free laser-cavity locking technique (squash locking) that utilizes changes in beam ellipticity for error signal generation, and a coherent polarization post-selection for noise resilience. By comparing two identically built proof-of-principle systems, we show a frequency locking instability of $5 \times 10^{-7}$ relative to the cavity linewidth at 10 s averaging. The results surpass the demonstrated performances of methods engineered over the last five decades, opening a new path for further advancing the precision and simplicity of laser frequency stabilization.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Diorico, Fritz, Zhutov, Artem, Hosten, Onur
Institution: Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4221152968