Statement of Work_Redacted.pdf

Statement of Work

Rack Mount 1315nm High Power Laser System

Clock Development Division, Precise Time Department

U. S. Naval Observatory

BACKGROUND

The United States Naval Observatory (USNO) is the authoritative source of time for the

Department of Defense. For this purpose the USNO’s Precise Time Department maintains an ensemble of high-performing atomic clocks that is used to generate precise time. Because of the lack of commercial vendors for the highest performing clocks, stocking the clock ensemble with systems based on cutting-edge technology requires that these systems be designed and built in-house.

Within the Precise Time Department, the Clock Development Division is investigating atomic clock technology using optical spectroscopy, requiring a laser at 1315 nm that can be phase locked to an optical cavity and output about 500 milliWatts (mW) in an optical fiber for subsequent second harmonic generation (SHG). This laser must be rack-mounted in order to fit into the clock architecture. In order to optimize uptime, we require a second, backup laser that can be rack-mounted with the primary on the same rack shelf.

REQUIREMENTS

The USNO seeks to procure a high-power 1315nm laser system with the following specifications:

Rack-mount architecture, fitting in a 19” equipment rack. A single rack-mount shelf must hold a primary and a backup 1315 nm laser. The lasers must be able to achieve all performance specifications in a rack-mounted configuration.

Laser architecture should be an external-cavity diode laser (ECDL) followed by a tapered amplifier. The center wavelength must be 1314.99 nm. The output power of the system must be 400 mW in fiber. The alignment from the ECDL into the tapered amplifier must be able to be optimized automatically using electronically driven actuators and controlled by an optimization procedure that can be initiated with a single button.

Fast feedback capable of narrowing laser to 1 Hertz (Hz) using external cavity or other narrow laser.

All thermal management necessary to operate lasers in an equipment rack must be integrated and/or provided. This includes any chiller or fluid-cooled baseplate necessary for optical performance.

Output fiber must be PM fiber with polarization aligned to the slow axis. Fiber connectors must be FC/APC. In addition, there must be some seed laser coupled into a separate fiber port for monitoring.

Laser must support 30 GigaHertz (GHz) or more of mode-hop free tuning, 40 decibels

(dB) of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) suppression, and a free running linewidth below 100 kHz.

System must provide 60 dB of isolation for both seed laser and tapered amplifier.

All laser control electronics (current, piezo, temperature) and 2 high-speed servos for phase locking must be provided.

FACILITIES, EQUIPMENT, AND TRAVEL:

Planning and support for the completion of these tasks will be coordinated with the technical

POCs listed below for the USNO. No travel is anticipated for this order.

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE:

The period of performance is nine (9) months or sooner for the delivery of components from award date.

POINTS OF CONTACT (POCs):

USNO’s Technical POCs for this order are:

DELIVERY:

US Naval Observatory, 3450 Massachusetts Ave. NW Washington, DC 20392