Compact stabilized semiconductor laser for frequency metrology

Abstract

We report on the development of a frequency modulatable 795 nm semiconductor laser based on self-injection locking to a high-quality-factor whispering-gallery-mode microresonator. The laser is characterized by residual amplitude modulation below -80 dB and frequency noise better than 300 Hz/Hz(1/2) at offset frequencies ranging from 100 Hz to 10 MHz. The frequency modulation speed and span of the laser exceed 1 MHz and 4 GHz, respectively. Locking of the laser to the Doppler-free saturated absorption resonance of the (87)Rb D1 line is demonstrated and relative frequency stability better than 10(-12) is measured for integration time spanning from 1 s to 1 day. The architecture demonstrated in this study is suitable for the realization of frequency modulatable lasers at any wavelength.

Dual-frequency sub-Doppler spectroscopy: Extended theoretical model and microcell-based experiments

“…The dependency of the sub-Doppler resonance height on power in the DF regime ( Fig.12b [1,42] to study if this approach could be competitive with other miniature OFR architectures [57][58][59][60]. Note that by using Rb instead, the laser source could be based on a frequency-doubled telecom laser [61,62], benefiting from the improved availability reliability and reproducibility of telecom-band lasers and optics.…”

Doppler-free spectroscopy on the Cs D_1 line with a dual-frequency laser

“…This method, frequently used to stabilize the frequency of a laser to a particular atomic line, is applied in atomic frequency standards [3], magnetometers [4], laser-cooling experiments [5] or atom interferometry. Laser fractional frequency stability in the 10 −13 −10 −11 range at 1 s integration time can be obtained by combining saturated absorption techniques and narrow-linewidth diode lasers [6][7][8][9][10]. In a common saturated absorption scheme, two counter-propagating laser beams of same frequency, a pump-beam and a probe beam, derived from a single laser beam, overlap one another in an atomic vapor cell.…”

Application of a self-injection locked cyan laser for Barium ion cooling and spectroscopy

“…2a). Like a standard external cavity diode laser, a self-injection locked WGM laser significantly reduces the linewidth of the laser diode, becoming much narrower than the linewidth of the cavity resonator mode 1,2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] .…”

“…The simultaneous high power and low linewidth visible wavelength laser was achieved by rarefying the available optical modes of the WGM cavity and controlling the amount of optical feedback to the laser diode. The type of laser presented here should have wide applicability for laser cooling, addressing narrow optical transitions, probing optical clock transitions in atoms, and controlling atomic and some solid state qubit systems 1,2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] . In addition, this WGM laser can be packaged in a small form factor and thus could have lower sensitivity to environmental noise than standard external cavity diode laser designs.…”