Ultra-Stable and Tunable Fabry-Perot Cavity for an Ytterbium Based Superradiant Laser

SummaryActive optical atomic clocks are emerging as a new promising tool for time and frequency metrology. Such clocks have the potential to reach a fractional frequency instability in the 10
^-18
range at one second [1]. These references are based on the superradiant emission of an ensemble of atoms coupled to a single mode of the electromagnetic field [2]. For optical references, this coupling is achieved through a resonant high-finesse Fabry-Perot cavity that therefore plays a crucial role to reach superradiant lasing. Specific characteristics are required to permit superradiant emission in a metrologically relevant regime: tunability of the cavity resonant frequency, ability to accommodate atoms and low fractional length fluctuations, in the order of 10
^-13
. This work shows the conception, through simulation, assembly and preliminary characterization of this Fabry Perot cavity.