Ultra-stable transportable ultraviolet clock laser using cancellation between photo-thermal and photo-birefringence...

Optical clocks require an ultra-stable laser to probe and precisely measure the frequency of the narrow-linewidth clock transition. We introduce a portable ultraviolet (UV) laser system for use in an aluminum quantum logic clock, demonstrating a fractional frequency instability of approximately mod σ _y = 2 × 10^-16. The system is based on an ultra-stable cavity with crystalline AlGaAs/GaAs mirror coatings, with a frequency quadrupling system employing two single-pass second-harmonic generation (SHG) stages. Its acceleration sensitivity, measured in all three axes, does not exceed 4(2) × 10^-12/(ms^-2) and is among the lowest recorded for transportable systems to date. Additionally, partial cancellation between photo-thermal noise and photo-birefringence noise is used to effectively mitigate noise induced by intra-cavity optical power fluctuation at lower Fourier frequencies.