TY - JOUR

T1 - 2×10-13 Fractional Laser-Frequency Stability with a 7-cm Unequal-Arm Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

AU - Huarcaya, Victor

AU - Álvarez, Miguel Dovale

AU - Penkert, Daniel

AU - Gozzo, Stefano

AU - Cano, Pablo Martínez

AU - Yamamoto, Kohei

AU - Delgado, Juan José Esteban

AU - Mehmet, Moritz

AU - Danzmann, Karsten

AU - Heinzel, Gerhard

N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank Germán Fernández Barranco for his help with analog electronics and Oliver Gerberding and Katharina-Sophie Isleif for their continued cooperation in the project. M.D.A. would like to thank Olaf Hartwig for fruitful discussions on time-domain stability analysis. This work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) Project-ID 434617780-SFB 1464. We acknowledge support from the DFG Sonderforschungsbereich 1128 Relativistic Geodesy and Cluster of Excellence “QuantumFrontiers: Light and Matter at the Quantum Frontier: Foundations and Applications in Metrology” (EXC-2123, Project No. 390837967) and the Max Planck Society (MPS) through the LEGACY cooperation on low-frequency gravitational-wave astronomy (M.IF.A.QOP18098). We also acknowledge support by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) with funds from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi), according to a decision of the German Federal Parliament (Grant No. 50OQ2301, based on Grants No. 50OQ0601, No. 50OQ1301, and No. 50OQ1801).

PY - 2023/8

Y1 - 2023/8

N2 - To achieve subpicometer sensitivities in the millihertz band, laser interferometric inertial sensors rely on some form of reduction of the laser-frequency noise, typically by locking the laser to a stable frequency reference, such as the narrow-line-width resonance of an ultrastable optical cavity or an atomic or molecular transition. In this paper, we report on a compact laser-frequency stabilization technique based on an unequal-arm Mach-Zehnder interferometer that is subnanometer stable at 10μHz, subpicometer at 0.5 mHz, and reaches a noise floor of 7fm/Hz at 1 Hz. The interferometer is used in conjunction with a dc servo to stabilize the frequency of a laser down to a fractional instability below 4×10-13 at averaging times from 0.1 to 100 s. The technique offers a wide operating range, does not rely on complex lock-acquisition procedures, and can be readily integrated as part of the optical bench in future gravity missions.

AB - To achieve subpicometer sensitivities in the millihertz band, laser interferometric inertial sensors rely on some form of reduction of the laser-frequency noise, typically by locking the laser to a stable frequency reference, such as the narrow-line-width resonance of an ultrastable optical cavity or an atomic or molecular transition. In this paper, we report on a compact laser-frequency stabilization technique based on an unequal-arm Mach-Zehnder interferometer that is subnanometer stable at 10μHz, subpicometer at 0.5 mHz, and reaches a noise floor of 7fm/Hz at 1 Hz. The interferometer is used in conjunction with a dc servo to stabilize the frequency of a laser down to a fractional instability below 4×10-13 at averaging times from 0.1 to 100 s. The technique offers a wide operating range, does not rely on complex lock-acquisition procedures, and can be readily integrated as part of the optical bench in future gravity missions.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85172876108&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.20.024078

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.20.024078

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85172876108

VL - 20

JO - Physical review applied

JF - Physical review applied

SN - 2331-7019

IS - 2

M1 - 024078

ER -