Molecular frequency reference at 1.56 mu m using a (CO)-C-12-O-16 overtone transition with the noise-immune cavity-enhanced optical heterodyne molecular spectroscopy method

摘要

We report on a molecular clock based on the interrogation of the 3 nu rotational-vibrational combination band at 1563 nm of carbon monoxide (CO)-C-12-O-16. The laser stabilization scheme is based on the noise-immune cavity-enhanced optical heterodyne molecular spectroscopy (NICE-OHMS) technique in frequency modulation (FM) saturation spectroscopy. We use a high-finesse ultra-low expansion (ULE) glass optical cavity with CO as the molecular reference for long-term stabilization of the cavity resonance. We report an Allan deviation of 1.8 x 10(-12) at 1 s that improves to similar to 3.5 x 10(-14) with 1000 s of averaging. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America