Method for stabilization of the microwave modulation index in order to suppress the light shift of the coherent population trapping resonances

For the resonance of coherent population trapping (CPT), we show that in the case of a spatially inhomogeneous light shift (for example, due to the Gaussian transversal profile of the light beam intensity), the zero position of the error signal, formed by the use of phase-jump technique, depends on the integration time of the spectroscopic signal. Basing on this effect, we propose two-loop method to stabilize the microwave power at the point where the light shift vanishes.

Optically-Injected-Semiconductor-Laser-Based Tunable Dual-Frequency Optoelectronic Oscillator under Subharmonic Microwave Modulation

To obtain low-phase-noise microwave signals with a widely tunable frequency range, an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) was constructed on the basis of an optically injected semiconductor laser (OISL) for the generation of high-quality microwave signals. Our OEO relied on the effect of wavelength-selective amplification and the period-one (P1) oscillation under optical injection. The signal’s frequency stability, side-mode-suppression ratio (SMSR) and linewidth were optimized by the subharmonic microwave modulation technique in the OEO loop. The experimental results showed that the frequency of the signal obtained by the proposed OEO could be tuned up to 18 GHz. Using the dual-loop OEO structure, the SMSR was increased to 55 dB. Moreover, the phase noise of the obtained microwave signal was lower than −81 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz frequency offset and −119 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz frequency offset. This was achieved by introducing subharmonic microwave modulation in the OEO loop, respectively. Furthermore, via the utilization of a Fabry–Perot laser diode (FP-LD) in the proposed structure, a dual-loop OEO with different dual-frequency configurations (which could be tuned up to 12 and 18 GHz) was obtained.

Спектрально-модуляционные характеристики лазеров с вертикальным резонатором

The requirements imposed on vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers in a number of metrological problems in which optical pumping of alkali atoms is used are considered. For lasers produced by different manufacturers, these requirements are compared with the experimentally observed spectral characteristics at a constant pump current and in the microwave modulation mode. It is shown that a comparatively small number of lasers in the microwave modulation mode make it possible to obtain the spectrum required for atomic clocks based on the coherent population-trapping effect.