Compact sub-hertz linewidth laser enabled by self-injection lock to a sub-milliliter FP cavity

Abstract

A narrow linewidth laser (NLL) of high frequency stability and small form factor is essential to enable applications in long-range sensing, quantum information, and atomic clocks. Various high performance NLLs have been demonstrated by Pound–Drever–Hall (PDH) lock or self-injection lock (SIL) of a seed laser to a vacuum-stabilized Fabry–Perot (FP) cavity of ultrahigh quality (Q) factor. However, they are often complicated lab setups due to the sophisticated stabilizing system and locking electronics. Here we report a compact NLL of 67-mL volume, realized by SIL of a diode laser to a miniature FP cavity of 7.7 × 108 Q and 0.5-mL volume, bypassing table-size vacuum as well as thermal and vibration isolation. We characterized the NLL with a self-delayed heterodyne system, where the Lorentzian linewidth reaches 60 mHz and the integrated linewidth is ∼80 Hz. The frequency noise performance exceeds that of commercial NLLs and recently reported hybrid-integrated NLL realized by SIL to high-Q on-chip ring resonators. Our work marks a major step toward a field-deployable NLL of superior performance using an ultrahigh-Q FP cavity.