Fiber-coupled 2 mL vacuum-gap Fabry–Perot reference cavity for portable laser stabilization

Abstract

Vacuum-gap Fabry–Perot cavities are indispensable for the realization of frequency-stable lasers, with applications across a diverse range of scientific and industrial pursuits. However, making these cavity-based laser stabilization systems compact, portable, and rugged enough for use outside of controlled laboratory conditions has proven difficult. Here, we present a fiber-coupled 1396 nm laser stabilization system requiring no free-space optics or alignment, built for a portable strontium optical lattice clock. Based on a 2 mL vacuum-gap Fabry–Perot cavity, this system demonstrates thermal noise-limited performance and 1 × 10−14 fractional frequency instability. Fiber-integrated optical components have been instrumental in both advancing the field of optics and leveraging those advances across disciplines to facilitate other fields of study. This portable system represents a major step toward making the frequency stability of cavity-based systems broadly accessible.