22 research outputs found
Amplitude to phase conversion of InGaAs pin photo-diodes for femtosecond lasers microwave signal generation
When a photo-diode is illuminated by a pulse train from a femtosecond laser,
it generates microwaves components at the harmonics of the repetition rate
within its bandwidth. The phase of these components (relative to the optical
pulse train) is known to be dependent on the optical energy per pulse. We
present an experimental study of this dependence in InGaAs pin photo-diodes
illuminated with ultra-short pulses generated by an Erbium-doped fiber based
femtosecond laser. The energy to phase dependence is measured over a large
range of impinging pulse energies near and above saturation for two typical
detectors, commonly used in optical frequency metrology with femtosecond laser
based optical frequency combs. When scanning the optical pulse energy, the
coefficient which relates phase variations to energy variations is found to
alternate between positive and negative values, with many (for high harmonics
of the repetition rate) vanishing points. By operating the system near one of
these vanishing points, the typical amplitude noise level of commercial-core
fiber-based femtosecond lasers is sufficiently low to generate state-of-the-art
ultra-low phase noise microwave signals, virtually immune to amplitude to phase
conversion related noise.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Applied Physics
On the role of the magnetic dipolar interaction in cold and ultracold collisions: Numerical and analytical results for NH() + NH()
We present a detailed analysis of the role of the magnetic dipole-dipole
interaction in cold and ultracold collisions. We focus on collisions between
magnetically trapped NH molecules, but the theory is general for any two
paramagnetic species for which the electronic spin and its space-fixed
projection are (approximately) good quantum numbers. It is shown that dipolar
spin relaxation is directly associated with magnetic-dipole induced avoided
crossings that occur between different adiabatic potential curves. For a given
collision energy and magnetic field strength, the cross-section contributions
from different scattering channels depend strongly on whether or not the
corresponding avoided crossings are energetically accessible. We find that the
crossings become lower in energy as the magnetic field decreases, so that
higher partial-wave scattering becomes increasingly important \textit{below} a
certain magnetic field strength. In addition, we derive analytical
cross-section expressions for dipolar spin relaxation based on the Born
approximation and distorted-wave Born approximation. The validity regions of
these analytical expressions are determined by comparison with the NH + NH
cross sections obtained from full coupled-channel calculations. We find that
the Born approximation is accurate over a wide range of energies and field
strengths, but breaks down at high energies and high magnetic fields. The
analytical distorted-wave Born approximation gives more accurate results in the
case of s-wave scattering, but shows some significant discrepancies for the
higher partial-wave channels. We thus conclude that the Born approximation
gives generally more meaningful results than the distorted-wave Born
approximation at the collision energies and fields considered in this work.Comment: Accepted by Eur. Phys. J. D for publication in Special Issue on Cold
Quantum Matter - Achievements and Prospects (2011
Cavity-enhanced direct frequency comb spectroscopy
Cavity-enhanced direct frequency comb spectroscopy combines broad spectral
bandwidth, high spectral resolution, precise frequency calibration, and
ultrahigh detection sensitivity, all in one experimental platform based on an
optical frequency comb interacting with a high-finesse optical cavity. Precise
control of the optical frequency comb allows highly efficient, coherent
coupling of individual comb components with corresponding resonant modes of the
high-finesse cavity. The long cavity lifetime dramatically enhances the
effective interaction between the light field and intracavity matter,
increasing the sensitivity for measurement of optical losses by a factor that
is on the order of the cavity finesse. The use of low-dispersion mirrors
permits almost the entire spectral bandwidth of the frequency comb to be
employed for detection, covering a range of ~10% of the actual optical
frequency. The light transmitted from the cavity is spectrally resolved to
provide a multitude of detection channels with spectral resolutions ranging
from a several gigahertz to hundreds of kilohertz. In this review we will
discuss the principle of cavity-enhanced direct frequency comb spectroscopy and
the various implementations of such systems. In particular, we discuss several
types of UV, optical, and IR frequency comb sources and optical cavity designs
that can be used for specific spectroscopic applications. We present several
cavity-comb coupling methods to take advantage of the broad spectral bandwidth
and narrow spectral components of a frequency comb. Finally, we present a
series of experimental measurements on trace gas detections, human breath
analysis, and characterization of cold molecular beams.Comment: 36 pages, 27 figure
Testing General Relativity with Atomic Clocks
We discuss perspectives for new tests of general relativity which are based
on recent technological developments as well as new ideas. We focus our
attention on tests performed with atomic clocks and do not repeat arguments
present in the other contributions to the present volume. In particular, we
present the scientific motivations of the space projects ACES and SAGAS.Comment: Contribution for "The Nature of Gravity" (eds. F. Everitt et al
High-resolution Spectroscopy With Femtosecond Optical Combs
A stabilized femtosecond frequency comb has ∼106 stable optical modes spanning hundreds of terahertz, making it an ideal tool for high-resolution spectroscopy. We demonstrate some features of frequency-comb spectroscopy using experiments involving calcium and cesium. © OSA.Oskay, W.H., Diddams, S.A., Donley, E.A., Fortier, T.M., Heavner, T.P., Hollberg, L., Itano, W.M., Bergquist, J.C., Single-atom optical clock with high accuracy (2006) Phys. Rev. Lett, 97, pp. 020801/1-020801/4Fortier, T.M., Bartels, A., Diddams, S.A., Octave-spanning Ti:sapphire laser with a repetition rate >1 GHz for optical frequency measurements and comparisons (2006) Opt. Lett, 31, pp. 1011-1013Jones, D.J., Diddams, S.A., Ranka, J.K., Stentz, A., Windeler, R.S., Hall, J.L., Cundiff, S.T., Carrier-envelope phase control of femtosecond mode-locked lasers and direct optical frequency synthesis (2000) Science, 288, pp. 635-639Fortier, T.M., Le Coq, Y., Stalnaker, J.E., Ortega, D., Diddams, S.A., Oates, C.W., Hollberg, L., Kilohertz-resolution spectroscopy of cold atoms with an optical frequency comb (2006) Phys. Rev. Lett, 97, pp. 163905/1-163905/4Oates, C.W., Bondu, F., Fox, R.W., Hollberg, L., A diode-laser optical frequency standard based on laser-cooled Ca atoms: Sub-kilohertz spectroscopy by optical shelving detection (1999) Eur. Phys. J. D, 7, pp. 449-460Degenhardt, C., Stoehr, H., Lisdat, C., Wilpers, G., Schnatz, H., Lipphardt, B., Nazarova, T., Riehle, F., Calcium optical frequency standard with ultracold atoms: Approaching 10-15 relative uncertainty (2005) Phys. Rev. A, 72, pp. 062111/1-062111/1
Phase-coherent synthesis of optical frequencies and waveforms
Precision phase control of an ultrawide-bandwidth optical-frequency comb has produced remarkable and unexpected progress in both areas of optical-frequency metrology and ultrafast optics. A frequency comb (with 100 MHz spacing) spanning an entire optical octave (>300 THz) has been produced, corresponding to millions of marks on a frequency "ruler" that are stable at the Hz level. The precision comb has been used to establish a simple optical clock based on an optical transition of iodine molecules, providing an rf clock signal with a frequency stability comparable to that of an optical standard, and which is superior to almost all conventional rf sources. To realize a high-power cw optical frequency synthesizer, a separate, widely tunable single-frequency cw laser has been employed to randomly access the stabilized optical comb and lock to any desired comb component. Carrier-envelope phase stabilization of few-cycle optical pulses has recently been realized. This advance in femtosecond technology is important for both extreme non-linear optics and optical-frequency metrology. With two independent femtosecond lasers, we have not only synchronized their relative pulse timing at the femtosecond level, but have also phase-locked their carrier frequencies, thus establishing phase coherence between the two lasers. By coherently stitching the optical bandwidth together, a "synthesized" pulse has been generated with its 2nd-order autocorrelation signal displaying a shorter width than those of the two "parent" lasers