High-powEr phosphorous-based DFB Lasers for Cold ATom Systems (HELCATS)

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There is a growing need for custom light sources for applications in quantum clocks in order to drive their reduction in size, weight, and cost. In particular, our project concentrates on sources for the Sr+ clock, one of the most promising ion systems being developed, which offers a clock accuracy around the 10^18 level, and stability at ~10^15/tau1/2. This system requires 4 laser sources in the ~680-710 nm wavelength range. The commercially available lasers emitting in these wavelengths either do not meet the stringent requirements for Sr+ clock systems or suffer from poor reliability because of the aluminium-containing gain region.This project develops phosphorous-based DFB lasers on GaAs substrates to address this growing need. Our innovation lies in utilising suitable semiconductor materials (InGaAsP/AlInGaP) that allows coverage of the required spectral bands (680-710nm). This approach ameliorates reliability and output power issues associated with the incumbent aluminium alloy approach. Furthermore, we adopt a low loss waveguide approach to enable narrower emission linewidths and elements of photonic integration to enable on-chip manufacturing of separate DFB and amplifier elements.The consortium provides a manufacturing supply chain from the growth of new epilayer structures and development of fabrication processes through to wafer scale manufacturing of DFB lasers to be deployed in operational clock systems. The project advances the Technological Readiness Level of stable DFB lasers operating in the 680 to 710 nm wavelength range to a late-stage pre-commercial level, i.e. TRL>6.