Major results

Group of High-Coherence Semiconductor Lasers

The Group carried out studies on the physics of diode lasers, on double resonance, light-stimulated transmission and absorption resonances, coherent population trapping, magnetometry, high-resolution spectroscopy, nitrogen vacancy centres in diamonds, as the result of which:

• a compact high-tech tunable diode laser with the external cavity was developed; it is actively used in research work by the LFS and many other scientific and educational laboratories in Russia and abroad;
• a prototype of an energy-efficient caesium atomic laser magnetometer was developed (acceptance tests were carried out in November 2013);
• a calibration setup was developed for trials and calibration of the magnetometer within the range of terrestrial magnetic fields (the setup is in the pavilion of the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation (IZMIRAN) (Troitsk, Moscow); 
• a vacuum set-up for filling and sealing cells with 87Rb isotope for a compact atomic clock was designed and developed.

Group of Precision Frequency Measurements

• the problem was solved of developing a compact optical microwave master oscillator (“optical clock”) with a short-time frequency stability exceeding the hydrogen maser frequency stability by two orders of magnitude. The work was recognized by the N.G. Basov Prize (2009) and a prize in the contest of LPI’s scientific works (2010) (jointly with the Fibre Optics Research Center RAS and Avesta Ltd).
• compact monoblock He–Ne/CH4 frequency standards (λ = 3.39 μm) with a short-time frequency stability of ~3∙10^–15 (averaging time,1 s) were developed; they are the basis of a new generation of master oscillators, required, in particular, for implementation of primary standards and frequency keepers on cold atoms and ions.
•  an optically pumped continuous-wave laser on a Cr²⁺:ZnSe crystal was developed, tunable in the range of 2.3–2.6 μm and operating in the regime of two-axial mode generation. The minimal spectral density of frequency noise was shown to be no more than 0.03 Hz/Hz½. The use of this laser in problems of Doppler and intra-Doppler spectroscopy enables detecting the spectral lines of gas absorption with sensitivities of 5∙10^–12 cm^–1 and 2∙10^–10 cm^–1 , respectively (averaging time, 1 s) (jointly with the Laboratory of Chemical Lasers of the DQRP and  the  Laboratory of Cathode Ray Pumped Lasers of LPI’s Department of Neutron Physics, Troitsk).
• a continuous-wave solid-state Cr²⁺:ZnSe laser was used for Doppler free spectroscopy of methane lines of the vibrational–rotational ν1+ν4 band. Resonances of saturated dispersion on components of line R(2) in the region of 2.36 μm were registered. Parameters of the saturated dispersion resonance, obtained at the cooling of the intra-cavity methane cell to T = 77 K confirmed the prospects of developing, based on a Cr²⁺:ZnSe/CH₄ laser, an optical master oscillator with a short-term frequency stability of ~10^–16 at an averaging time of 1 s (jointly with the Laboratory of Chemical Lasers of the DQRP and  the  Laboratory of Cathode Ray Pumped Lasers  of LPI’s Department of Neutron Physics, Troitsk).