AOSENSE, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N211-094

Description

AOSense proposes to design, build, test, and deliver a Robust Atom Interferometry Laser System (RAILS) that will provide all optical outputs required by typical atom interferometers.  The RAILS will consist of a compact laser module and a low-power electronic controller.  The laser module will comprise three distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers: one master laser and two slave lasers.  A miniature saturation absorption spectroscopy (SAS) module residing inside the laser module will frequency-stabilize the master laser to a Doppler-free atomic hyperfine transition.  The two slave lasers will be optically phase locked to the master laser with offset frequencies.  The switching time between offset frequencies will be less than 1 ms.  The output power of each laser frequency will be larger than 50 mW.  The total volume of the laser module will be less than 40 cm3.  A low power electronic controller will control the operation of the laser module.  The total power consumption will be less than 3 W.  The RAILS will benefit other quantum sensors such as atomic gravimeters and gravity gradiometers, as well as cold atomic clocks.