The marketing team enjoyed a visit to one of our
longest standing and most valued customers last month. We met
Professor Vincent Boyer whose Birmingham University Quantum Optics
Group has been using a SolsTiS (our alignment-free, narrow
linewidth Ti:S laser) for over two years in their optical squeezing
apparatus.
We were shown a complex experiment with the SolsTiS
sitting at the centre of an immense breadboard of equipment which
included a Rb vapour cell used to generate a four-wave-mixing
process to create photon pairs. These photons are recombined to
create a squeezed beam with a clean transverse intensity profile.
The squeezed beam can then be used in applications such as atomic
force microscopy, gravity wave detection and as an illumination
source in microscopy to improve the quantum limit of optical
resolution.
The Birmingham University Quantum Optics Group
selected a SolsTiS because of its low amplitude noise, low
mechanical noise, thermal stability and the low maintenance,
alignment free nature of the design and technology. Tuned to the
Rubidium D1 line, the laser is simply switched on from cold each
morning and is ready to start immediately.In particular, Professor
Boyer cites the robust build quality of the SolsTiS as an important
factor in eliminating mechanical (technical) noise from the
experiment's delicate and complex apparatus.
It was a real treat and a privilege to see an
experiment like this up close. Visit the downloads section of
our website where we will shortly be posting a case study of this
SolsTiS installation. You can also download a datasheet for the
SolsTiS.