China’s Institute of Science and Technology has made breakthrough in the development of its own space narrow-width lasers

[China instrument network instrument research and development] High-precision optical reference cavity is the key to the development of narrow-width lasers, and it is also one of the key technologies that China's space station scientific application platform urgently needs to solve.

Spherical ultrastable optical reference cavity

Recently, the quantum frequency standard research group headed by Zhang Shougang, director of the National Time Service Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has made breakthroughs in the autonomous development of narrow-width lasers. Under the leadership of researcher Liu Tao, the group's narrow linewidth laser research team cooperated with domestic units and successfully developed the high-precision spherical optical reference cavity for space environment for the first time in China, and fully mastered the ultra-stable optical reference cavity processing facility. It involves key core technologies such as ultra-precision optical processing, ultra-high reflectivity coating, and non-adhesive optical bonding.

The test results show that the precision of the spherical ultra-stable optical reference cavity is about 200,000, cavity reflectivity reaches 0.9999914, and the cavity loss is less than 5ppm. The relevant indexes are equivalent to the technical level of similar foreign products, which basically meets the urgent need of China's space station scientific application. This work was published in the 8th issue of Acta Physica Sinica in 2017. According to the review opinion, the study is a very technically challenging and challenging job, and it also has the significance of breaking potential embargoes in China.

The above research has won the support of the national major scientific research equipment and equipment development projects and the National Natural Science Foundation.

Our country lags behind developed countries in the field of narrow linewidth lasers. This has made it impossible for China to solve some key issues of space station science application platforms for a long time. The successful research and development of the high-precision spherical optical reference cavity used in the space environment by the National Time Service Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has provided great help for the solution of scientific problems in China's space station and has also broken the technology of the developed countries to China to some extent. blockade.

(Original title: A breakthrough in the development of autonomous narrow space lasers)