Active optical clock based on four-level quantum system

Active optical clock,a new conception of atomic clock,has been proposed recently.In this work,we propose a scheme of active optical clock based on four-level quantum system.The final accuracy and stability of two-level quantum system are limited by second-order Doppler shift of thermal atomic beam.To three-level quantum system,they are mainly limited by light shift of pumping laser field.These limitations can be avoided effectively by applying the scheme proposed here.Rubidium atom four-level quantum system,as a typical example,is discussed.The population inversion between 6S 1/2 and 5P 3/2 states can be built up at a time scale of 10-6 s.With the mechanism of active optical clock,in which the cavity mode linewidth is much wider than that of the laser gain profile,it can output a laser with quantum-limited linewidth narrower than 1 Hz in theory.An experimental configuration is designed to realize this active optical clock.