UV/Visible Alpha-Barium Borate Acousto-Optic Modulators for Atomic Interferometry Applications
Technical Abstract
The goal of this work is to demonstrate BBO as a new material for acousto-optics, which has the potential of combining the best properties of all existing materials into a single crystal allowing an unprecedented leap in the performance of AO devices. Acousto-optic deflector and modulator technology is currently limited by the properties of only a small handful of crystals used for essentially all of the available devices, and although each material possesses advantageous features, none have a combination of all of the beneficial features found in other materials. These key performance attributes of BBO which we will capitalize on include the UV transparency, slow-shear mode, high AO figure of merit (M2), of 57x10-15s3/kg self-collimating acoustics, linear polarization switching diffraction, optical rotation frequency tuning, and low acoustic attenuation. Together, these properties will allow a quantum leap in the performance of UV AOMs appropriate for efficiently and precisely addressing and modulating the tuned lasers used to excite and manipulate arrays of trapped atoms. Our objective during phase I will be:
Fully characterize modern high quality a-BBO accurately enough to confirm the highly efficient self-collimating slow mode.
Complete the design of a UV AOM
Fabricate an initial modulator (AOM).
Perform antireflection coating
Experimentally characterized test devices in order to validate our designs