Dynamical low-noise microwave source for cold-atom experiments

authored by

Bernd Meyer-Hoppe, Maximilian Baron, Christophe Cassens, Fabian Anders, Alexander Idel, Jan Peise, Carsten Klempt

Abstract

The generation and manipulation of ultracold atomic ensembles in the quantum regime require the application of dynamically controllable microwave fields with ultra-low noise performance. Here, we present a low-phase-noise microwave source with two independently controllable output paths. Both paths generate frequencies in the range of 6.835 GHz ± 25 MHz for hyperfine transitions in ⁸⁷Rb. The presented microwave source combines two commercially available frequency synthesizers: an ultra-low-noise oscillator at 7 GHz and a direct digital synthesizer for radio frequencies. We demonstrate a low integrated phase noise of 480 µrad in the range of 10 Hz to 100 kHz and fast updates of frequency, amplitude, and phase in sub-µs time scales. The highly dynamic control enables the generation of shaped pulse forms and the deployment of composite pulses to suppress the influence of various noise sources.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Quantum Optics
CRC 1227 Designed Quantum States of Matter (DQ-mat)

Type

Article

Journal

Review of Scientific Instruments

Volume

94

No. of pages

6

ISSN

0034-6748

Publication date

07.2023

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Instrumentation

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2003.10989 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0160367 (Access: Open)