Optical Cavity for the Strontium Lattice Atomic Clock

The Sr lattice atomic clock in Jun Ye’s group has been experiencing frequency shifts due to the interaction between the Sr atoms in the optical trap. One possible solution is to change the optical trap in the system such that the Sr atom density, and therefore the interaction between the atoms, is reduced. For this project a test system is necessary to test the vacuum chamber viewports, which involved building a laser diode and an optical cavity. This paper will explore the theory behind both as well as their implementation.