A prototype industrial laser system for cold atom inertial sensing in space

Romain Caldani (1) , Sébastien Merlet (1) , Franck Pereira dos Santos (2) , Guillaume Stern (3) , Anne-Sophie Martin (3) , Bruno Desruelle (3) , Vincent Ménoret (3)

1 LNE - SYRTE - Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais - Systèmes de Référence Temps-Espace
2 SYRTE - Systèmes de Référence Temps Espace
3 Muquans

We present the design, realization, characterization and testing of an industrial prototype of a laser system, which is based on frequency doubling of telecom lasers and features all key functionalities to drive a cold atom space gradiometer based on the architecture proposed in [Trimeche et al, 2019]. Testing was performed by implementing the laser system onto a ground based atomic sensor currently under development. The system reaches a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 4, corresponding to an operational validation in a controlled environment. The optical architecture of the system can be adapted to other space mission scenarios.

Domaines: Physique Atomique [physics.atom-ph]

Romain Caldani, Sébastien Merlet, Franck Pereira dos Santos, Guillaume Stern, Anne-Sophie Martin, et al.. A prototype industrial laser system for cold atom inertial sensing in space. 2019. ⟨hal-02334944⟩