2022/03/29 by McLemore, Charles A., Jin, Naijun, Kelleher, Megan L. +7
#FOS: Physical sciences #Optics (physics.optics)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2203.15915
Lasers stabilized to vacuum-gap Fabry-Pérot optical reference cavities display extraordinarily low noise and high stability, with linewidths much less than 1 Hz. These lasers can expand into new applications and ubiquitous use with the development of compact, portable cavities that are manufacturable at scale. Here we demonstrate an 8 mL volume Fabry-Pérot cavity constructed with mirrors that are fabricated lithographically with finesse near 1 million. A laser locked to the cavity exhibits phase noise limited by the cavity thermal noise for offset frequencies ranging from 1 Hz to ≈ 1 kHz, with a fractional frequency stability of 7×10-15 at 1 second. Furthermore, the use of microfabricated mirrors allows us to expand the design space of centimeter-scale cavities, and we explore the noise implications of pushing towards cavity volumes of 2 mL or less.