Abstract
With 199Hg atoms confined in an optical lattice trap in the Lamb-Dicke regime, we obtain a spectral line at 265.6 nm for which the FWHM is ∼15 Hz. Here we lock an ultrastable laser to this ultranarrow 1S0 - 3P0 clock transition and achieve a fractional frequency instability of 5.4 × 10-15/√τ for τ ≤ 400 s. The highly stable laser light used for the atom probing is derived from a 1062.6 nm fiber laser locked to an ultrastable optical cavity that exhibits a mean drift rate of -6.0 × 10-17 s-1 (-16.9 mHzs-1 at 282 THz) over a six month period. A comparison between two such lasers locked to independent optical cavities shows a flicker noise limited fractional frequency instability of 4 × 10-16 per cavity.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3477-3479 |
Number of pages | 3 |
Journal | Optics Letters |
Volume | 37 |
Issue number | 17 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Sept 2012 |
Externally published | Yes |