Temperature-dependent mechanical losses of Eu${}^{3+}$:Y${}_2$SiO${}_5$ for spectral hole burning laser stabilization

Abstract

We investigate the mechanical loss characteristics of Eu${}^{3+}$:Y${}_2$SiO${}_5$$\unicode{x2013}$a promising candidate for ultra-low-noise frequency stabilization through the spectral hole burning technique. Three different mechanical oscillators with varying surface-to-volume ratios and crystal orientations are evaluated. In this context, we perform mechanical ringdown and spectral measurements spanning temperatures from room temperature down to $15\mathrm{K}$. By doing so, we measure a maximum mechanical quality factor of $Q=3676$, corresponding to a loss angle of $\varphi =2.72\times 10^{-4}$. For a spectral hole burning laser stabilization experiment at $300\mathrm{mK}$, we can estimate the Allan deviation of the fractional frequency instability due to Brownian thermal noise to be below ${\sigma }_{\delta \nu /{\nu }_0}=2.5\times 10^{-18}$, a value lower than the estimated thermal-noise limit of any current cavity-referenced ultra-stable laser experiment.

7 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Thermal-noise Limits to the Frequency Stability of Burned Spectral Holes
• From Heat Capacity to Coherence in Ultra-Narrow-Linewidth Solid-State Optical Emitters at Sub-Kelvin Temperatures