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State-of-the-art laser frequency stabilization by high-finesse optical cavities is limited fundamentally by thermal noise-induced cavity length fluctuations. We present a novel design to reduce this thermal noise limit by an order of magnitude as well as an experimental realization of this new cavity system, demonstrating the most stable oscillator of any kind to date for averaging times of 0.1–10 s. The cavity spacer and the mirror substrates are both constructed from single-crystal silicon and are operated at 124 K, where the silicon thermal expansion coefficient is zero and the mechanical loss is small. The cavity is supported in a vibration-insensitive configuration, which, together with the superior stiffness of the silicon crystal, reduces the vibration-related noise. With rigorous analysis of heterodyne beat signals among three independent stable lasers, the silicon system demonstrates a fractional frequency instability of 1 × 10 −16 at short timescales and supports a laser linewidth of <40 mHz at 1.5 µm. Frequency stabilization in a high-finesse optical cavity is limited fundamentally by thermal-noise-induced cavity length fluctuations. Scientists have now developed a single-crystal silicon system that offers a fractional frequency instability of 1 × 10 −16 at short timescales and supports a laser linewidth of less than 40 mHz at 1.5 µm.

Leveraging the unrivalled performance of optical clocks as key tools for geo-science, for astronomy and for fundamental physics beyond the standard model requires comparing the frequency of distant optical clocks faithfully. Here, we report on the comparison and agreement of two strontium optical clocks at an uncertainty of 5 × 10 −17 via a newly established phase-coherent frequency link connecting Paris and Braunschweig using 1,415 km of telecom fibre. The remote comparison is limited only by the instability and uncertainty of the strontium lattice clocks themselves, with negligible contributions from the optical frequency transfer. A fractional precision of 3 × 10 −17 is reached after only 1,000 s averaging time, which is already 10 times better and more than four orders of magnitude faster than any previous long-distance clock comparison. The capability of performing high resolution international clock comparisons paves the way for a redefinition of the unit of time and an all-optical dissemination of the SI-second. Comparing the frequency of two distant optical clocks will enable sensitive tests of fundamental physics. Here, the authors compare two strontium optical-lattice clocks 690 kilometres apart to a degree of accuracy that is limited only by the uncertainty of the individual clocks themselves.

We present a laser system with a linewidth and long-term frequency stability at the 50 kHz level. It is based on a Ti:Sapphire laser emitting radiation at 882 nm which is referenced to an atomic transition. For this, the length of an evacuated transfer cavity is stabilized to a reference laser at 780 nm locked to the 85 Rb D 2 -line via modulation transfer spectroscopy. Gapless frequency tuning of the spectroscopy laser is realized using the sideband-locking technique to the transfer cavity. In this configuration , the linewidth of the spectroscopy laser is derived from the transfer cavity, while the long-term stability is derived from the atomic resonance. Using an optical frequency comb, the frequency stability and linewidth of both lasers are characterized by comparison against an active hydrogen maser frequency standard and an ultra-narrow linewidth laser, respectively. The laser system presented here will be used for spectroscopy of the 1 s 2 2 s 2 2 p 2 P 1 / 2 - 2 P 3 / 2 transition in sympathetically cooled Ar 13 + ions at 441 nm after frequency doubling.

Performance and noise immunity of different interferometer set-ups for carrier-envelope phase detection are compared. The frequently used Mach–Zehnder interferometer is found to be easily corrupted by acoustic noise contributions and air streaks, whereas a quasi-common-path variant of the f -to-2 f interferometer exhibits a 40% reduction of residual noise. This comparative analysis also provides deeper insight into additional mechanisms that are currently limiting the performance of carrier-envelope phase stabilization schemes.

The design of mixed wedge pairs for control of the carrier-envelope phase of femtosecond laser pulses is discussed. The wedge pairs can be designed in such a way that they practically only compensate for the difference between group and phase delay, but leave either the group delay or the dispersion of the wedge assembly constant. Such isochronous or isodispersive compensators can be used for intracavity as well as for extracavity applications. Other side effects, such as the residual angular dispersion of the wedge pair are considered, and it is shown, both theoretically and experimentally, that material combinations exist that even enable a good compromise in reducing practically all disturbing side effects. Based on the two commonly available Schott glasses N-BK10 and N-PK51, a compensator assembly is experimentally tested inside a 10-fs Ti:sapphire oscillator. It is found that undesired variations of the laser repetition rate are reduced by a factor 50 compared to a set of identical silica wedges.

Distributing a stable, absolute optical reference frequency via fiber network would serve research and development in academia and industry. Lasers stabilized to high-finesse Fabry–Pérot cavities can achieve fractional frequency instabilities of less than 10 −15 for periods up to several seconds. Their instabilities increase for longer averaging times due to a variable frequency drift, with a linear drift component of the order of 10…100 mHz/s. Hydrogen masers, on the other hand, yield an instability floor of a few parts in 10 −15 , but suffer from poor stabilities on short timescales. We demonstrate an infrared optical frequency source that combines a cavity-stabilized laser with a hydrogen maser to achieve a residual fractional frequency instability better than 5 × 10 −15 for all averaging times from 0.4 up to 10,000 s. The frequency drift of the system over a period of 40,000 s is less than 30 µHz/s. For obtaining absolute frequency accuracy, the hydrogen maser is referenced to a primary frequency standard.

The carrier-envelope offset frequency of a laser oscillator is determined from the visibility of spectrally resolved fringes in a combined two-path multiple-path interferometer. At maximum visibility the pulses have zero carrier-envelope phase drift, while the visibility becomes zero for uncorrelated pulses. The method is widely independent of bandwidth and pulse energy. The effects of carrier-envelope offset phase noise, finite detection time, and dispersion are also discussed.

A gallium-antimonide-based semiconductor disk laser was passively modelocked to produce near transform-limited 384 fs pulses at a wavelength of 1960 nm. A fast semiconductor saturable absorber mirror was used as a modelocking element in the laser. Both the gain structure and the saturable absorber incorporated multiple InGaSb/GaSb quantum wells, providing the necessary gain and absorption.