Abstract
Active optical clock, a new conception of atomic clock, has been proposed recently. In this work, we propose a scheme of active optical clock based on four-level quantum system. The final accuracy and stability of two-level quantum system are limited by second-order Doppler shift of thermal atomic beam. To three-level quantum system, they are mainly limited by light shift of pumping laser field. These limitations can be avoided effectively by applying the scheme proposed here. Rubidium atom four-level quantum system, as a typical example, is discussed. The population inversion between 6S 1/2 and 5P 3/2 states can be built up at a time scale of 10−6 s. With the mechanism of active optical clock, in which the cavity mode linewidth is much wider than that of the laser gain profile, it can output a laser with quantum-limited linewidth narrower than 1 Hz in theory. An experimental configuration is designed to realize this active optical clock.
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Zhang, T., Wang, Y., Zang, X. et al. Active optical clock based on four-level quantum system. Chin. Sci. Bull. 58, 2033–2038 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-013-5877-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-013-5877-0