Brillouin comb line amplifiers for optical atomic clocks

Abstract

Optical atomic clocks outperform the microwave clocks at the heart of current timing and navigation infrastructure by orders-of-magnitude, and recent progress in on-chip integration provides the opportunity to widely deploy them. Conventionally, a narrow linewidth laser interrogates the atomic transition, and an optical frequency comb divides its stabilised frequency (hundreds of terahertz) down to a microwave that is electronically countable. The laser(s) impose a significant size, weight, power and cost penalty, which is a current barrier to low-cost, scalable, fully on-chip optical clocks. Here, we position the frequency comb as the central engine of the clock by using Brillouin-amplified comb lines for atomic spectroscopy, which eliminates the need for stable clock lasers. Amplified comb lines reach an ultra-low frequency noise floor of 6 Hz²/Hz at 30 kHz offset, an order-of-magnitude below a high-end commercial fibre laser. We realize a clock based on the 5S_1/2→5D_5/2 transition in ⁸⁷Rb with competitive fractional frequency stability of 2×10⁻¹³ at τ= 1 s, averaging to 9×10⁻¹⁵ at τ= 1000 s. Lastly, we demonstrate a photonic chip-integrated Brillouin amplifier with a record 62.9 dB gain and up to 40 dB transferred noise suppression when pumped with a simple, low-cost diode laser. This opens a new route to compact optical clocks and enables use of atomic transitions lacking low-noise lasers by broadening a comb to the required wavelength and amplifying single lines.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{russell2026brillouin,
  title = {{Brillouin comb line amplifiers for optical atomic clocks}},
  author = {Ryan L. Russell and Lachlan Pointon and Sarah Katherine Scholten and Choon Kong Lai and Lisa-Sophie Haerteis and Cong Tinh Bui and Alvaro Casas Bedoya and Andreas Boes and Duk Yong Choi and Stephen J. Madden and Andre Luiten and Benjamin J. Eggleton and Moritz Merklein},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.03038},
  eprint = {2611.03038},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.03038},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Brillouin comb line amplifiers for optical atomic clocks
AU  - Ryan L. Russell
AU  - Lachlan Pointon
AU  - Sarah Katherine Scholten
AU  - Choon Kong Lai
AU  - Lisa-Sophie Haerteis
AU  - Cong Tinh Bui
AU  - Alvaro Casas Bedoya
AU  - Andreas Boes
AU  - Duk Yong Choi
AU  - Stephen J. Madden
AU  - Andre Luiten
AU  - Benjamin J. Eggleton
AU  - Moritz Merklein
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/02
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.03038
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.03038
AB  - Optical atomic clocks outperform the microwave clocks at the heart of current timing and navigation infrastructure by orders-of-magnitude, and recent progress in on-chip integration provides the opportunity to widely deploy them. Conventionally, a narrow linewidth laser interrogates the atomic transition, and an optical frequency comb divides its stabilised frequency (hundreds of terahertz) down to a microwave that is electronically countable. The laser(s) impose a significant size, weight, power and cost penalty, which is a current barrier to low-cost, scalable, fully on-chip optical clocks. Here, we position the frequency comb as the central engine of the clock by using Brillouin-amplified comb lines for atomic spectroscopy, which eliminates the need for stable clock lasers. Amplified comb lines reach an ultra-low frequency noise floor of 6 Hz^2/Hz at 30 kHz offset, an order-of-magnitude below a high-end commercial fibre laser. We realize a clock based on the 5S_1/2→5D_5/2 transition in ^87Rb with competitive fractional frequency stability of 2×10^−13 at τ= 1 s, averaging to 9×10^−15 at τ= 1000 s. Lastly, we demonstrate a photonic chip-integrated Brillouin amplifier with a record 62.9 dB gain and up to 40 dB transferred noise suppression when pumped with a simple, low-cost diode laser. This opens a new route to compact optical clocks and enables use of atomic transitions lacking low-noise lasers by broadening a comb to the required wavelength and amplifying single lines.
ER  -

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