Dual-wavelength laser source for onboard atom interferometry

Vincent Ménoret (1) , Remi Geiger (2, 1) , Guillaume Stern (2, 1) , Nassim Zahzam (3) , Baptiste Battelier (1, 4) , Alexandre Bresson (3) , Arnaud Landragin (5) , Philippe Bouyer (4, 1)

1 laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Optique atomique
2 CNES - Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse]
3 ONERA - The French Aerospace Lab [Palaiseau]
4 lp2n-02,lp2n-11
5 SYRTE - Systèmes de Référence Temps Espace

We present a compact and stable dual-wavelength laser source for onboard atom interferometry with two different atomic species. It is based on frequency-doubled telecom lasers locked on a femtosecond optical frequency comb. We take advantage of the maturity of fiber telecom technology to reduce the number of free-space optical components which are intrinsically less stable, and to make the setup immune to vibrations and thermal fluctuations. The source provides the frequency agility and phase stability required for atom interferometry and can easily be adapted to other cold atom experiments. We have shown its robustness by achieving the first dual-species K-Rb magneto optical trap in microgravity during parabolic flights.

Keywords: Interférometrie atomique; source laser

Domains: Atomic Physics [physics.atom-ph]; Optics [physics.optics]

Vincent Ménoret, Remi Geiger, Guillaume Stern, Nassim Zahzam, Baptiste Battelier, et al.. Dual-wavelength laser source for onboard atom interferometry. Optics Letters, 2011, 36 (21), pp.4128-4130. ⟨10.1364/OL.36.004128⟩. ⟨hal-00613319⟩