An ultra-stable referenced interrogation system in the deep ultraviolet for a mercury optical lattice clock

We have developed an ultra-stable source in the deep ultraviolet, suitable to fulfil the interrogation requirements of a future fully-operational lattice clock based on neutral mercury. At the core of the system is a Fabry–Pérot cavity which is highly impervious to temperature and vibrational perturbations. The mirror substrate is made of fused silica in order to exploit the comparatively low thermal noise limits associated with this material. By stabilizing the frequency of a 1062.6 nm Yb-doped fiber laser to the cavity, and including an additional link to LNE-SYRTE’s fountain primary frequency standards via an optical frequency comb, we produce a signal which is both stable at the 10 −15 level in fractional terms and referenced to primary frequency standards. The signal is subsequently amplified and frequency-doubled twice to produce several milliwatts of interrogation signal at 265.6 nm in the deep ultraviolet.