Portable Frequency Stabilized Laser System

This is a Notice of Proposed Contract Action under the FAR Part 12 Acquisition of Commercial Items and FAR Part 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures. This notice is for information only; a solicitation will not be issued. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR QUOTATION. No contract will be awarded on the basis of offers received in response to this notice. The associated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 334516 with a small business size standard of 1,000 employees.

AFRL requires Portable Frequency Stabilized Laser System. The Government intends to negotiate a sole source contract with:   

Stable Laser Systems

4946 63rd Street, Ste. B

Boulder, CO 80301

The Government has determined that no other source has commercial offerings that can meet this requirement. The Government requires a very narrow, ultrastable laser system to address a particular transition of singly-ionized barium as part of their trapped ion research efforts. The intrinsic properties of barium ions set requirements that must be met in order to perform particular tasks within a trapped ion system. Stable Laser Systems is able to provide a complete system that meets these requirements.

Under the contemplated contract, Stable Laser Systems will provide the following supplies and services in sustainment of the Connecting Quantum Capabilities program:

1. Portable Frequency Stabilized Laser System with a laser Toptica DLC DL Pro provided by SLS

Frequency stabilized laser system including installation, training, manuals, and 1 year warranty, with shipping crate. System to include custom cavity, control electronics, GUI control with command line options, vibration isolation, and offset lock.

Laser Specifications:

• Design wavelength 1762 nm
• Laser Linewidth < 1Hz
• Allan Deviation at 1 s; no drift removed <1.2 x 10^(-15)
• Allan Deviation at 10 s < 2 x 10^(-14)
• Frequency Drift over 24 hours <20 kHz at time of delivery
• Optical output >1 W PM1550-XP aligned to slow axis

Cavity Specifications:

• Ultra-low expansion (ULE) substrate mirrors
• ULE cavity FSR 1.5 GHz
• Finesse > 300 000
• Custom vacuum housing
• Vacuum housing pressure <1 x 10^-7 Torr.
• Temperature control at measured spacer zero crossing temperature

Control Specifications:

• Control of all system functions via GUI on a laptop, or a front panel touchscreen
• Control from command line with instructions provided
• High speed Pound Drever Hall locking electronics
• Offset lock from cavity which allows the locked stabilized frequency to be changed
• DDS able to accept external 10/100 MHz reference signal
• Phase continuous programmable frequency drift removal

1. SLS-FIFOcav

Fiber in fiber out tunable cavity in enclosure. Required to lock the incident 1W beam using an EOM and PDH discriminator, and will include FPGA locking electronics with remote control. Specifications:

• Cavity Center Wavelength 1762 nm
• Cavity FSR ~1 GHz
• Cavity Finesse 1000-1500
• Fiber to fiber efficiency 67%
• Fiber PM1550
• Cavity PieZoelectric Transducer (PZT) allowing ~2 free spectral range with voltages ~200 V

Additionally, the provided control system for the above items must meet the following specifications:

• User-controlled option to internal Oven-Controlled Crystal Oscillation (OCXO) or external 10/100 MHz reference provided by end user.
• Control using GUI on a latpot, serial commands (listing provided) over USB, and/or a touchscreen.
• Frequency offset lock with offset range 15 MHz – 800 MHz either side of carrier
• Phase-continuous frequency tuning for linear frequency drift removal.
• Drift removal capable for >1 year of accumulated drift
• Manual integrated frequency reset
• Lock initiated by external trigger, toggle switch, or command line.
• Locking gains adjustable by command line.
• Auto-lock reacquisition sequence provided, with unlock events logged
• Two provided external frequency tuning inputs with programmable scaling and programmable low-pass filter corner frequency
• Status reporting and user-optional logging at approximately 1 Hz, to include:
  • Packet number
  • Lock time
  • Unlock events
  • Actuator voltage
  • Net offset frequency
  • Drift rate

This is a notice of proposed contract action and not a request for competitive proposals; however, all responsible sources may submit a capability statement or proposal, which shall be considered by the agency. All inquiries should be sent by email to Ashley.Ellinger@us.af.mil. Responses must be submitted by the date/time listed on the notice. Any response to this notice must show clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government in future procurements.

Responses received will be evaluated; however a determination by the Government not to compete the proposed procurement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The Government anticipates an award date on or before 31 August 2021.

A Sole Source Justification will be attached to the subsequent Notice of Award in accordance with applicable regulation.