TY - JOUR

T1 - Low phase noise cavity transmission self-injection locked diode laser system for atomic physics experiments

AU - Krinner, L.

AU - Dietze, K.

AU - Pelzer, L.

AU - Spethmann, N.

AU - Schmidt, P. O.

N1 - Funding Information: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EXC 2123 QuantumFrontiers, project-ID 390837967, SFB-1227 DQmat, project B03, project-ID 274200144, SFB-1464 TerraQ project-ID 434617780); HORIZON EUROPE European Research Council (101019987); European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (17FUN03 (USOQS), 20FUN01 (TSCAC)); State of Lower Saxony through Niedersächsisches Vorab (QVLS-Q1).

PY - 2024/4/16

Y1 - 2024/4/16

N2 - Lasers with high spectral purity are indispensable for optical clocks and for the coherent manipulation of atomic and molecular qubits in applications such as quantum computing and quantum simulation. While the stabilization of such lasers to a reference can provide a narrow linewidth, the widely used diode lasers exhibit fast phase noise that prevents high-fidelity qubit manipulation. In this paper, we demonstrate a self-injection locked diode laser system that utilizes a high-finesse cavity. This cavity not only provides a stable resonance frequency, it also acts as a low-pass filter for phase noise beyond the cavity linewidth of around 100 kHz, resulting in low phase noise from dc to the injection lock limit. We model the expected laser performance and benchmark it using a single trapped 40Ca+-ion as a spectrum analyzer. We show that the fast phase noise of the laser at relevant Fourier frequencies of 100 kHz to >2 MHz is suppressed to a noise floor of between −110 dBc/Hz and −120 dBc/Hz, an improvement of 20 to 30 dB over state-of-the-art Pound-Drever-Hall-stabilized extended-cavity diode lasers. This strong suppression avoids incoherent (spurious) spin flips during manipulation of optical qubits and improves laser-driven gates when using diode lasers in applications involving quantum logic spectroscopy, quantum simulation, and quantum computation.

AB - Lasers with high spectral purity are indispensable for optical clocks and for the coherent manipulation of atomic and molecular qubits in applications such as quantum computing and quantum simulation. While the stabilization of such lasers to a reference can provide a narrow linewidth, the widely used diode lasers exhibit fast phase noise that prevents high-fidelity qubit manipulation. In this paper, we demonstrate a self-injection locked diode laser system that utilizes a high-finesse cavity. This cavity not only provides a stable resonance frequency, it also acts as a low-pass filter for phase noise beyond the cavity linewidth of around 100 kHz, resulting in low phase noise from dc to the injection lock limit. We model the expected laser performance and benchmark it using a single trapped 40Ca+-ion as a spectrum analyzer. We show that the fast phase noise of the laser at relevant Fourier frequencies of 100 kHz to >2 MHz is suppressed to a noise floor of between −110 dBc/Hz and −120 dBc/Hz, an improvement of 20 to 30 dB over state-of-the-art Pound-Drever-Hall-stabilized extended-cavity diode lasers. This strong suppression avoids incoherent (spurious) spin flips during manipulation of optical qubits and improves laser-driven gates when using diode lasers in applications involving quantum logic spectroscopy, quantum simulation, and quantum computation.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85191191887&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1364/OE.514247

DO - 10.1364/OE.514247

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85191191887

VL - 32

SP - 15912

EP - 15922

JO - Optics express

JF - Optics express

SN - 1094-4087

IS - 9

ER -