Independent development of a Silicon ultra-stable optical reference cavity with high-finesse
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1National Time Service Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710600, China;2Key Laboratory of Time Reference and Application, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710600, China;3Xi’an SNP Precision Optics Co., Ltd., Xi’an 710100, China;4School of Communications and Information Engineering and School of Artificial Intelligence, Xi’an University of Posts and Telecommunications, Xi’an 710121, China

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043

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Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (12303076, 12403078), the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province (2024GX-ZDCYL-01-28), the Sanqin Talents' Special Support Program (09R0557A00), the Shaanxi Provincial Outstanding Young Scientist Fund Project (2025JC-JCQN-082), the Shaanxi Province Key Research and Development Program (2025CY-YBXM-0060), the Shaanxi Province Qin Chuangyuan "Scientist + Engineer" Team Construction Project (2025QCY-KXJ-162), the Open Fund of Hubei Luojia Laboratory (230100030).

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    Abstract:

    This work presents the independent development of a silicon ultra-stable optical reference cavity with high-finesse. Silicon exhibits exceptional thermal stability, lower mechanical loss, and superior vibrational insensitivity. An optimized machining process effectively addresses key manufacturing challenges posed by silicon's brittleness and anisotropic properties. The three-stage polishing technology is utilized to achieve ultra-smooth surfaces with ? level roughness (RMS). The high-reflection film is produced using SiO2/Ta2O5 as the coating material via ion beam sputter deposition. A cavity linewidth measurement method demonstrates a finesse of ~340,000, comparable to top international counterparts. These results demonstrate China’s ability to independently develop high-performance silicon-based ultra-stable optical reference cavities. This advancement holds significance for precision applications like optical clocks and gravitational wave detection.

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History
  • Received:June 03,2025
  • Revised:June 19,2025
  • Adopted:June 24,2025
  • Online: April 28,2026
  • Published:
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