Ideally, Laser is known to have only one color, frequency and wavelength. However, there is always a discrepancy in linewidth in reality. Now, scientists have developed the world’s sharpest laser that has a record-breaking precision which can help make optical atomic clocks more precise, and also test Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Scientists from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany have created a Laser that has a linewidth of only 10mHz, which is significantly closer to the ideal Laser than ever before! This achieved precision is useful for many different application like optical atomic clocks, radioastronomy, precision spectroscopy, as well as testing the theory of relativity.
Laser’s excellent coherence of emitted light is one of its most outstanding properties. This is a measure for the light wave’s regular frequency with linewidth. Ideally Laser light has only one fixed wavelength or frequency. In reality however, the spectrum of most types of laser can reach only from kHz to MHz in width, which makes it not a good choice for experiments that require high precision. This is why many researchers have focused on developing more precise lasers that have greater frequency stability and have narrower linewidth.
Source: Laser Focus World
After almost a decade-long project from JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado Boulder in the US, a “new” Laser has now been developed at PTB, that has a linewidth of only 10mHz. Therefore creating a new world record.
“The smaller the linewidth of the laser, the more accurate the measurement of the atom’s frequency in an optical clock. This new laser will enable us to decisively improve the quality of our clocks,” PTB physicist Thomas Legero said.
The scientists also found out that the emitted laser light’s frequency was more precise than all the other existing Lasers. These new lasers are now being used at PTB and JILA in Boulder to further improve the quality of optical atomic clocks. They will also perform new precision measurements on ultracold atoms.
At PTB, these laser’s ultrastable light is already being distributed using optical waveguides which will then be utilized by the optical clocks in Braunschweig.
It has been more than 50 years since Laser has been first found, and honestly, the technological world we live in won’t be able to survive without it. Laser light has many different applications in different industries such as medicine, manufacturing, information technologies, as well as in the fields of research and metrology.
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