Terahertz frequency standard based on three-photon coherent population trapping

Caroline Champenois (1) , Gaetan Hagel (1) , Marie Houssin (1) , Martina Knoop (1) , Cedric Zumsteg (1) , Fernande Vedel (1)

1 PIIM - Physique des interactions ioniques et moléculaires

A scheme for a THz frequency standard based on three-photon coherent population trapping in stored ions is proposed. Assuming the propagation directions of the three lasers obey the phase matching condition, we show that stability of few 10$^{-14}$ at one second can be reached with a precision limited by power broadening to $10^{-11}$ in the less favorable case. The referenced THz signal can be propagated over long distances, the useful information being carried by the relative frequency of the three optical photons.

Mots clés: metrologie des frequences; piegeage coherent de population; ions piégés

Domaines: Physique Quantique [quant-ph]

Caroline Champenois, Gaetan Hagel, Marie Houssin, Martina Knoop, Cedric Zumsteg, et al.. Terahertz frequency standard based on three-photon coherent population trapping. Physical Review Letters, 2007, 99, pp.013001. ⟨hal-00149090⟩