Self-aligned extended-cavity diode laser stabilized by the Zeeman effect on the cesium D2 line

An extended-cavity diode laser at 852 nm has been built especially for the purpose of cooling and probing cesium atoms. It is a compact, self-aligned, and continuously tunable laser source having a 100-kHz linewidth and 60-mW output power. The electronic control of the laser frequency by the piezodriven external reflector covers a 4.5-kHz bandwidth, allowing full compensation of acoustic frequency noise without any adverse effect on the laser intensity noise. We locked this laser to Doppler-free resonances on the cesium D(2) line by using the Zeeman modulation technique, resulting in the frequency and the intensity of the laser beam being unmodulated. We also tuned the locked laser frequency over a span of 120 MHz by using the dc Zeeman effect to shift the F = 4-F' = 5 reference transition.     

Mode Interactions in Four-frequency Degeneracy-lifted Ring Lasers

Abstract

A non-planar ring cavity, with a non-reciprocal bias in the form of the longitudinal Zeeman effect on the gain medium, has been used to demonstrate four-mode bidirectional operation in a He-Ne ring laser at 632·8 nm. It has also been shown that this ring system is sensitive to rotation.     

Common-path optical heterodyne profilometer: a configuration

A novel configuration that combines a linearly polarized He-Ne laser and a birefringent lens to produce a common-path polarized optical heterodyne profilometer with respect to the heterodyned P and S waves has been set up. In this profilometer a linear polarized frequency-stabilized He-Ne laser was used with an acousto-optical modulator to replace the Zeeman laser as the light source that had two polarization eigenstates in different temporal frequencies. The proposed interferometer shows a more symmetric and ideal common-path structure than the conventional optical heterodyne profilometers with the Zeeman laser. The phase error aroused by the elliptical polarization and the nonorthogonality of the two eigenpolarization modes of the Zeeman laser can be reduced. The system's resolution in the vertical direction reaches 2 A, and in a 27-mum scanning range the repeatability of the surface profile measurements is shown to be 5 A.     

Precision interferometric frequency measurement of the 674 nm2S1/2-2D5/2 transition in asingle cold Sr+ ion

The narrow linewidth 674 nm ²S_1/2-² D_5/2 transition in a cold Sr⁺ ion confined within an RF Paul trap has been probed using an optically narrowed 674 nm diode laser offset-locked to a second diode laser stabilized to a high-finesse ultra-low-expansion reference cavity. The transition frequency has been measured by means of interferometric comparison with an iodine-stabilized 633 nm He-Ne reference standard. A preliminary value for the ²S_1/2-²D_5/2 transition line center is 444 779 045 (9) MHz, limited by residual micromotion and low magnetic field Zeeman splitting     

Fluid velocity measurements in a microchannel performed with two new optical heterodyne microscopes

Two laser Doppler microscopes (LDMs) based on an optical heterodyne interferometer have been developed for measuring fluid velocity in a microchannel. One of LDMs receives light from a Zeeman laser, and one easily obtains the standard heterodyne signal because a polarizer is set in front of a photomultiplier tube. The other LDM, with light from a He-Ne laser, employs a diffractive grating as a frequency shifter that is modulated in a sinusoidal movement by a piezoelectric transducer stack. By this modulation the nonstandard heterodyne signal is further processed by a new synthetic heterodyne algorithm. Finally, the phase shift related to the fluid velocity in both LDMs is demodulated by digital postprocessing in fast-Fourier-transform, bandpass filtering, inverse-fast-Fourier-transform, and arctangent algorithms.     

Tunable and frequency-stabilized diode laser with a Doppler-free two-photon zeeman lock

We describe frequency locking of a diode laser to a two-photon transition of rubidium using the Zeeman modulation technique. We locked and tuned the laser frequency by modulating and shifting the two-photon transition frequency with ac and dc magnetic fields. We achieved a linewidth of 500 kHz and continuous tunability over 280 MHz with no laser frequency modulation.     

Absolute Frequency Stabilization of the 3.39-?m Laser on a CH4 Line

Theoretical and experimental studies on a primary standard of wavelength and frequency in the infrared are reported. The 3.39-?m He-Ne laser is tuned to the center of the absorption line of methane which is assigned to the F1(2)) component of the P(7) branch of the ?3 band. The absence of Stark and Zeeman effects under the highest fields tested, the strong absorption at 63.2° K as well as at 78°K, and the separation from other lines are excellent features for a high degree of absolute stability and reproducibility. A method of automatic frequency control of the He-Ne laser at the line-center of methane is described.     

Microwave spectrum asymmetry in an optically pumped cesium beamresonator

This paper deals with a theoretical and experimental study that describes the effect of a frequency detuning of the laser used to achieve optical pumping in a small optically pumped cesium beam resonator. The ground state Zeeman sublevels with opposite angular momentum are unequally populated, leading to an asymmetrical microwave spectrum. The relative population asymmetry as a function of the laser frequency has a dispersion-like shape. Its dependence on laser intensity, applied magnetic field, and laser linewidth is demonstrated for a laser at 852 nm and tuned to the ²S_1/2F=3→²P_3/2F'=3 transition of the Cs D₂ line. Finally, the effect of a slight laser detuning on the Rabi pulling frequency shift is discussed     

采用Zeeman效应与饱和吸收法的激光器稳频

由于塞曼效应中性原子的超精细能级在磁场中会产生塞曼分裂,且对于左旋和右旋圆偏振光原子能级的偏移不同,因此利用Zeeman效应的这种特性与饱和吸收相结合的方法对光栅外腔反馈的半导体激光器系统进行稳频。这种方法能够将激光频率稳定地锁在原子吸收谱线的峰值处,锁频后激光器不易失锁,用于激光冷却铷原子实验。     

激光刻图在制造 a-Si 光伏器件中的应用

描述了在集成型 a-Si 光伏器件的制造中,利用高功率激光束进行刻图的新方法。作为激光刻图中材料除去的模型,被刻蚀材料的蒸汽压对材料除去会带来很大的影响。在制备 a-Si 光伏器件中,侧边接触的器件结构对激光刻图技术是很合适的。激光的平均功率或激励电流,重复频率、焦距和扫描速度是激光刻图技术的基本参数。我们列出了刻蚀 TCO、a-Si 和背电极薄膜的一些刻蚀条件,可以发现要刻蚀不同的薄膜,需控制这些条件以达到最佳化。     

Deceleration of a calcium atomic beam with a frequency-doubled diode laser

A calcium atomic beam has been decelerated by a single extended-cavity diode laser, frequency doubled to 423 nm. A potassium niobate crystal is placed in an external power buildup cavity, and the second-harmonic laser beam, counterpropagating with the atomic beam, is tuned into resonance with the strong (1)S(0)-(1)P(1) transition of calcium. For input power of 78 mW at 846 nm, we generate 22 mW at 423 nm after correction for the reflectivity of our cavity output coupler. To keep the atoms always in resonance during the deceleration process, the Zeeman tuning technique was used.     

频率分裂在双频激光器和位移传感器中的两种新应用

主要介绍了激光频率分裂技术的两种新应用,包括用两种方法克服强模竞争以获得频差可覆盖1～40MHz的双频激光器,以及将一个双折射双频激光器本身用作一个位移传感器.这种双频激光器可以填补塞曼激光器和双折射激光器之间存在的3～40 MHz频差空白,可以用作激光干涉仪理想的光源.位移传感器结构简单,其分辨率为79 nm,测量范围达到了15 mm,并且可以自校准.     

Two-channel interferometer based on inter-laser detection of reflected radiation

A novel laser interferometer is proposed. It successively generates two quadrature output signals at a high carrier frequency, combining a two-beam principle with a point spread function possessing a high slope. The interferometer is based on a dual-mode Zeeman He−Ne laser with a wavelength of 3.39 μm. It is used to present experimental investigations of an erosion capillary discharge in air produced by means of a grind-faced graphite employed as the reflector. Translated from Izmeriell’naya Tekhnika, No. 7, pp. 36–39, July, 1999.     

Heterodyne interferometer with subatomic periodic nonlinearity

A new, to our knowledge, heterodyne interferometer for differential displacement measurements is presented. It is, in principle, free of periodic nonlinearity. A pair of spatially separated light beams with different frequencies is produced by two acousto-optic modulators, avoiding the main source of periodic nonlinearity in traditional heterodyne interferometers that are based on a Zeeman split laser. In addition, laser beams of the same frequency are used in the measurement and the reference arms, giving the interferometer theoretically perfect immunity from common-mode displacement. We experimentally demonstrated a residual level of periodic nonlinearity of less than 20 pm in amplitude. The remaining periodic error is attributed to unbalanced ghost reflections that drift slowly with time.     

Stabilization of an 852 nm extended cavity diode laser using the Zeeman effect

Abstract

We demonstrate the use of the Zeeman effect in Cs vapour to stabilize an ultra-compact extended cavity diode laser (ECDL) operating at 852 nm. We investigate the expected laser stabilization error signal for a range of magnetic fields and are able to tune the locked ECDL by variation of the magnetic field. We also study in detail the tuning of the laser frequency using optical methods. The ECDL has a linewidth of 520kHz and the drift, when locked, is of the order of 5 MHzh^?1.     

Frequency-stabilized diode laser with the Zeeman shift in an atomic vapor

We demonstrate a robust method of stabilizing a diode laser frequency to an atomic transition. This technique employs the Zeeman shift to generate an antisymmetric signal about a Doppler-broadened atomic resonance, and therefore offers a large recapture range as well as high stability. The frequency of a 780-nm diode laser, stabilized to such a signal in Rb, drifted less than 0.5 MHz peak-peak (1 part in 10(9)) in 38 h. This tunable frequency lock can be constructed inexpensively, requires little laser power, rarely loses lock, and can be extended to other wavelengths by use of different atomic species.     

Nanometer vibrations measured using a semiconductor laser on quantum-confined structures operating in an autodyne regime

A method for the quantitative monitoring of nanometer vibrations has been developed based on the autodyne detection effect in a semiconductor laser. It is shown that the semiconductor laser autodyne can be used for measuring the amplitudes of vibrations in a range from one nanometer to 10 μm in a frequency band from a few hertz to several hundred megahertz. With the aid of a lock-in amplifier, the lower threshold of measured vibration amplitudes has been reduced to one ångström.     

Q-switched mode-locking of an erbium-doped fiber laser using cavity modulation frequency detuning

We present the results of an investigation regarding a Q-switched mode-locked fiber laser scheme based on a cavity modulation frequency detuning technique. The approach is based on undamped laser relaxation oscillations occurring due to frequency detuning in the fundamental cavity resonance frequency. Through a range of experiments with an erbium-doped, fiber-based, ring-cavity laser, this approach has been shown to be capable of generating high-quality Q-switched mode-locked pulses from an optical fiber-based laser. The maximum frequency detuning range for a stable Q-switched mode-locking operation has been observed to vary depending on the pump power used. We found that the highest pulse peak power was obtained at the frequency detuning threshold at which the operation changed from the mode-locking to the Q-switched mode-locking regime.     

Enhancement of spectral purity of injection-seeded titanium:sapphire laser by cavity locking and stimulated Brillouin scattering

We report improvements to and better characterization of the spectral purity of a diode laser injection-seeded, cavity-locked titanium sapphire laser that serves as the source for a previously reported rubidium vapor spectrally filtered Thomson scattering apparatus at 780.24 nm. In a detailed set of measurements the spectral purity P of the laser, defined as the ratio ofthe narrowband component of the laser output to the total output, has been studied as a function of frequency mismatch between the seed laser frequency and the central frequency of the unseeded cavity. It is found that spectral purity exceeding 0.999 can be obtained for a seed-cavity mismatch as high as +/- 0.25 nm, corresponding to approximately 950 cavity longitudinal-mode spacings and as high as approximately 0.9999 for a cavity-seed mismatch in the range +/- 0.10 nm (380 mode spacings). It is also shown that the addition of an external-cavity stimulated Brillouin-scattering phase-conjugate mirror increases both the spectral purity, to a minimum of 0.99999, and the cavity-seed mismatch range, to +/- 0.25 nm, for which this maximum effective purity is obtained.