Ultra-stable lasers using hollow-core fibre

Abstract

Ultra-stable lasers are fundamental to a growing range of applications, including optical frequency metrology, fundamental physics and quantum sensing. Their outstanding performance is achieved by stabilizing their frequency to Ultra-Low Expansion (ULE) optical cavities. However, the complexity of fabrication and assembly of these systems - even for compact designs - has been limiting their widespread deployment. While micro-resonators and optical fibre delay lines offer alternatives, their performance is significantly limited by thermally-induced frequency drift. Here we demonstrate, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, a laser stabilised to a Hollow Core Fibre (HCF) achieving comparable performance to ULE cavity-stabilised lasers. We achieve a frequency instability of 4.6x10-15 at 1 s and a frequency drift of 88 mHz/s, reducible to 3.7 mHz/s with thermal correction. Furthermore, over 3-year characterization confirms the HCF's predictable long-term behaviour. These results and the simplicity of the HCF-based system pave the way to a high-performance and scalable solution for ultra-stable laser sources.