Frequency stability of a dual-mode whispering gallery mode optical reference cavity

Abstract

We report an investigation of laser frequency stabilization using a whispering gallery mode resonator that is temperature stabilized by a dual-mode technique. This dual-mode technique has yielded mode volume temperature instabilities at the nK level, suggesting that high frequency stability may also be reached. Here, we experimentally and theoretically investigate the dynamics of such a system and the important factors affecting the achievable frequency stability. We calculate that the dual-mode technique can reduce the effective fractional temperature coefficient of the reference system to 3.6x10^-8 K^-1 within the temperature feedback bandwidth. We demonstrate a 1560 nm laser stabilized to 1.3x10^-12 at 1 s and 1.1x10^-10 at 1000 s, corresponding to a long-term drift of 21 kHz/hr.

10 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Whispering gallery mode resonator based ultra-narrow linewidth external cavity semiconductor laser
• Fundamental thermal fluctuations in microspheres
• Temperature measurement and stabilization in a birefringent whispering gallery resonator
• CaF2 Whispering-Gallery-Mode Resonator Stabilized Narrow Linewidth Laser
• Finite element modeling of coupled optical microdisk resonators for displacement sensing
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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Nonlinear and Quantum Optics with Whispering Gallery Resonators
• Probing 10 μK stability and residual drifts in the cross-polarized dual-mode stabilization of single-crystal ultrahigh-Q optical resonators
• Nano-Kelvin thermometry and temperature control: beyond the thermal noise limit
• Sub-kHz lasing of a CaF_2 Whispering Gallery Mode Resonator Stabilized Fiber Ring Laser
• Ultraprecise optical-frequency stabilization with heterogeneous III-V/Si lasers
• A microrod optical-frequency reference in the ambient environment