Calibrating an interferometric laser frequency stabilization to megahertz precision

We report on a calibration procedure that enhances the precision of an interferometer based frequency stabilization by several orders of magnitude. For this purpose, the frequency deviations of the stabilization are measured precisely by means of a frequency comb. This allows us to implement several calibration steps that compensate different systematic errors. The resulting frequency deviation is shown to be less than 5.7?MHz (rms 1.6?MHz) in the whole wavelength interval 750-795?nm. Wide tuning of a stabilized laser at this exceptional precision is demonstrated.     

镱离子光钟的多波长数字PID激光稳频系统

针对镱离子光钟实验中激光冷却并操控离子时,激光器频率漂移影响原子钟系统的问题,基于数字PID控制方法,设计了一种新的多通道频率-数字信号转换稳频方法,将多路多波长激光频率锁定在波长计的参考频率上。对激光器锁定前和锁定后的频率进行一定时长的数据采集及数据对比,激光频率漂移由800 MHz控制在± 0.8 MHz,激光频率稳定度由9.29 × 10^-10@1 s优化至2.79 × 10^-10@1 s,频率千秒稳达到3.85 × 10^-12。该系统简单、易实现,具有小型化、适应性强的优点。     

Frequency Stabilization of a Ho:Tm:YLF Laser to Absorption Lines of Carbon Dioxide

A single-frequency Ho:Tm:YLF laser, operating at an eye-safe wavelength of 2 mum, has been developed with tuning characteristics optimized for spectroscopy of absorption features. The laser frequency was stabilized to three different absorption lines of carbon dioxide by a wavelength modulation technique. Long-term frequency drift has been eliminated from the laser, and shorter-term jitter has been reduced to within 13.5 MHz of the absorption line center. This stabilized laser is an ideal injection seed source for a differential absorption lidar system for measurement of atmospheric gases.     

Frequency stabilization of a 1.3 microm laser diode using double resonance optical pumping in the 5P 3/2-6S 1/2 transition of Rb atoms

The frequency stabilization of a laser diode in the 1.3 microm region using double resonance optical pumping (DROP) spectrum in the 5P(3/2)-6S(1/2) transition of (87)Rb atoms is demonstrated. The signal-to-noise ratio of the DROP spectrum is approximately ten times higher than that of the previous optical-optical double resonance spectrum. The spectral linewidth of the DROP measures 8.4 MHz. When the frequency of a 1.367 microm laser diode is stabilized to the DROP spectrum, the frequency stability is 9 x 10(-12) after 100 s. Also, the wavelength of the frequency-stabilized laser locked to the 5P(3/2)-6S(1/2) transition using a wavelength meter is measured.     

Characterization of a broadband all-optical ultrasound transducer-from optical and acoustical properties to imaging

A broadband all-optical ultrasound transducer has been designed, fabricated, and evaluated for high- frequency ultrasound imaging. The device consists of a 2-D gold nanostructure imprinted on top of a glass substrate, followed by a 3 microm PDMS layer and a 30 nm gold layer. A laser pulse at the resonance wavelength of the gold nanostructure is focused onto the surface for ultrasound generation, while the gold nanostructure, together with the 30 nm thick gold layer and the PDMS layer in between, forms an etalon for ultrasound detection, which uses a CW laser at a wavelength far from resonance as the probing beam. The center frequency of a pulse-echo signal recorded in the far field of the transducer is 40 MHz with -6 dB bandwidth of 57 MHz. The signal to noise ratio (SNR) from a 70 microm diameter transmit element combined with a 20 microm diameter receive element probing a near perfect reflector positioned 1.5 mm from the transducer surface is more than 10 dB and has the potential to be improved by at least another 40 dB. A high-frequency ultrasound array has been emulated using multiple measurements from the transducer while mechanically scanning an imaging target. Characterization of the device's optical and acoustical properties, as well as preliminary imaging results, strongly suggest that all-optical ultrasound transducers can be used to build high-frequency arrays for real-time high-resolution ultrasound imaging.     

Detection of Ultrasonic Signal Using Polarized Homodyne Interferometer with Avalanche Detector and Electrical Filter

Usually, ultrasonic detection is obtained by conventional contact techniques. In some critical cases such as working at hard environmental conditions (hot oven or nuclear field) or sensitive surfaces, then non-contact optical techniques should be used. However, for all optical techniques, low sensitive ultrasonic detection still a common problem. This paper presents a self building homodyne laser interferometer system which is modified by polarization state to improve the detection performance and to increase the sensitivity limit. The introduced interferometer system has been used to detect ultrasonic signal generated in coated quartz sample around its 10 MHz resonance frequency. He–Ne laser source has been used at 633 nm wavelength with low optical power of 1 μW. The generated ultrasonic signal has been observed by two different photodetectors to investigate the better performance one. Band pass electrical filter with certain specifications has been used to obtain suitable signal to noise ratio as demonstrated through this work.     

Precise wavelength control of a single-frequency pulsed Ho:Tm:YLF laser

We demonstrate wavelength control of a single-frequency diode-pumped Ho:Tm:YLF laser by referencing its wavelength to an absorption line of carbon dioxide. We accomplish this wavelength control by injection seeding with a cw Ho:Tm:YLF laser that can be tuned over or stabilized to carbon dioxide or water vapor lines. We show that the pulsed laser can be scanned precisely over an absorption line of carbon dioxide by scanning the injection seed laser wavelength. We locked the pulsed laser to within 18.5 MHz of the absorption line center by stabilizing the injection seed on the line center. The single-frequency pulsed output, intended for use as a transmitter for differential absorption lidar detection of atmospheric carbon dioxide and water vapor and for coherent detection of wind, is 100 mJ per pulse at a 5-Hz repetition rate.     

Stable,Efficient, Single-mode Operation of a High Repetition Rate Grazing Incidence Dye Laser

Abstract

A pulsed, grazing incidence dye laser has been designed to oscillate at a repetition rate of 6·5 kHz in a single, narrow and stable, axial mode with a high excitation conversion efficiency. A single mode efficiency of 12% has been measured in a near diffraction limited beam. No measurable fluctuations of the central laser wavelength or the 100–150 MHz single mode linewidth were observed during an hour of observation. The effect of grating incident angle and dye flow rate on laser operation have been investigated and a correlation has been found between the state of polarization of the dye laser output and the polarization of the pump laser.     

High-speed random access laser tuning

We have developed a technique for laser tuning at rates of 100 kHz or more using a pair of acousto-optic modulators. In addition to all-electronic wavelength control, the same modulators also can provide electronically variable Q-switching, cavity length and power stabilization, chirp and linewidth control, and variable output coupling, all at rates far beyond what is possible with conventional mechanically tuned components. Tuning rates of 70 kHz have been demonstrated on a radio-frequency-pumped CO(2) laser, with random access to over 50 laser lines spanning a 17% range in wavelength and with wavelength discrimination better than 1 part in 1000. A compact tuner and Q-switch has been deployed in a 5-10-kHz pulsed lidar system. The modulators each operate at a fixed Bragg angle, with the acoustic frequency determining the selected wavelength. This arrangement doubles the wavelength resolution without introducing an undesirable frequency shift.     

Injection-seeded pulsed alexandrite laser for differential absorption lidar application

We describe a Q-switched alexandrite laser injection seeded with a cw single-mode titanium-sapphire laser. The reported experimental results show that this system meets the frequency stabilization required for differential absorption lidar measurement of humidity, pressure, and temperature. The emission of the cw titanium-sapphire master oscillator is locked to an atmospheric absorption line by means of a servoloop with derivative spectroscopy. The spectral position is stabilized within ±3.5 × 10(-4) cm(-1) (10 MHz) of the peak of the line over 1 hr. The alexandrite laser emits pulses of 30 mJ in 500 ns, with a spectral linewidth of ≈ 3.3 × 10(-3) cm(-1) (100 MHz). The position of the centroid of the emitted spectrum has a standard deviation of 6 × 10(-4) cm(-1) (18 MHz) and is held within ±1.3 × 10(-3) cm(-1) (40 MHz) of the peak of the absorption line over 1 h.     

Time-resolved wavelength modulation spectroscopy measurements of HO 2 kinetics

High-frequency wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS) has been applied to the detection of the hydroperoxyl radical (HO2 ) in a laser photolysis and long-path absorption pump-probe kinetics reactor with a near-infrared distributed feedback diode laser. The HO2 is formed by the 355-nm photolysis of Cl2 in the presence of CH3 OH and O2 and monitored by a phase-sensitive detection of the second-harmonic (2f ) signal in the 2?1 band with a 1.5- ?m diode laser directly modulated at 5 MHz. The measured 2f WMS signal is calibrated by direct absorption and converted to an absolute number density with the known absorption line strength of the HO2 line at 6625.80cm-1 . The utility of time-resolved WMS as a second-order kinetics probe is demonstrated through the measurement of the HO2 self-reaction rate constant at 295 K.     

High-powered green light generation by intracavity frequency doubling using grating feedback optics

Grating feedback optics is shown to contribute to narrowing the spectral bandwidth of a multilongitudinal-mode laser diode to less than 0.2 nm and tuning the lasing wavelength to the peak absorption wavelength of Nd:YVO(4). A continuous green light of 31 mW was efficiently generated by intracavity frequency doubling of the Nd:YVO(4) laser with a KTiOPO(4) crystal. A relative intensity noise of less than -140 dB/Hz was obtained in the frequency region greater than 2 MHz. The noise characteristics of generated green light are discussed as compared with the case of using a single-longitudinal-mode laser diode as the pumping source.     

Radio frequency controlled synthetic wavelength sweep for absolute distance measurement by optical interferometry

We present a new technique applied to the variable optical synthetic wavelength generation in optical interferometry. It consists of a chain of optical injection locking among three lasers: first a distributed-feedback laser is used as a master to injection lock an intensity-modulated laser that is directly modulated around 15 GHz by a radio frequency generator on a sideband. A second distributed-feedback laser is injection locked on another sideband of the intensity-modulated laser. The variable synthetic wavelength for absolute distance measurement is simply generated by sweeping the radio frequency over a range of several hundred megahertz, which corresponds to the locking range of the two slave lasers. In this condition, the uncertainty of the variable synthetic wavelength is equivalent to the radio frequency uncertainty. This latter has a relative accuracy of 10(-7) or better, resulting in a resolution of +/-25 microm for distances exceeding tens of meters. The radio frequency generator produces a linear frequency sweep of 1 ms duration (i.e., exactly equal to one absolute distance measurement acquisition time), with frequency steps of about 1 MHz. Finally, results of absolute distance measurements for ranges up to 10 m are presented.     

Single-frequency, high-power, continuous-wave fiber-laser-pumped Ti:sapphire laser

We demonstrate a high-power, continuous-wave (cw), single-frequency green source based on single-pass second-harmonic generation of a Yb-fiber laser in MgO:sPPLT as a viable pump source for a cw single-frequency Ti:sapphire ring laser. By careful design and optimization, the Ti:sapphire laser can provide as much as 2.3 W of cw single-frequency output across a 47 nm tuning range, limited by the reflectivity of the cavity mirrors. By implementing active stabilization of the laser frequency to an external reference, an ultrastable Fabry-Perot interferometer, we obtain a frequency stability better than 12 MHz over 10 min and continuous tunability greater than 180 MHz. Stable output power with peak-to-peak fluctuation of 5.4% over 75 min, in high spatial beam quality with M(2)<1.34, is achieved.     

半导体激光器用铷D2线光电流谱稳频

本文报导了用铷原子７８００Ａ光电流谱来稳定半导体激光器的工作，在光电流谱线的中部发现了有利于稳频的凹陷，将半导体激光器频率锁定在凹陷的中央，估算的频率稳定度为１ＭＨｚ。     

Direct observation of transient fluorine atoms with 25-µm wavelength-stabilized diode laser absorption

Through the use of continuous diode laser absorption, detection of transient fluorine atoms with an initial number density in the range of 10(14) cm(-3) has been demonstrated. A crucial part of the continuous-detection technique was laser frequency stabilization with a reference cell of atomic fluorine with Zeeman modulation of the absorption lines to generate a feedback signal. Long-term wavelength stability was demonstrated with second-harmonic phase-sensitive detection of the second-derivative signal for periods up to several hours. For determination of the short-term wavelength stability in the range of microseconds to seconds, a transient signal was generated by photolysis of F(2) with an excimer laser at 308 nm. The initial diode laser absorption was compared to a calculated value obtained from the measured excimer laser fluence, the known dissociation cross section of F(2), and the atomic fluorine absorption cross section, which included a statistical population distribution, the finite bandwidth of the laser dode, and the effects of pressure broadening. The observed absorption was approximately 33% less than the calculated value, possibly because of the diode laser's wavelength instability on the time scale of a few seconds, which is consistent with an observed amplitude instability from pulse to pulse when pulsed at 1-10 Hz.     

Stabilization of an embedded fiber optic Fabry-Perot sensor forultrasound detection

A method is proposed to stabilize an intrinsic fiber optic Fabry-Perot interferometric sensor embedded in a solid material for the purpose of detecting ultrasound. Without stabilization the interferometer drifts out of quadrature due to the presence of low-frequency dynamic strains. Stabilization is achieved by using active homodyne stabilization which tunes the laser frequency to maintain quadrature. A control loop shifts the laser frequency by 10 GHz at rates less than 25 Hz in order to compensate for induced drifts. The stabilization procedure was tested for a sensor embedded in an epoxy plate. Ultrasonic pulses, generated by a 5 MHz piezoelectric transducer, were detected with the embedded fiber sensor stabilized in the presence of applied low frequency strains. Improvements in sensitivity which result from stabilization are demonstrated. Additionally, a simulated acoustic emission signal, generated by a lead pencil break (Hsu-Neilson source), was detected with the sensor stabilized in the presence of dynamic strains     

Broadband,continuous, and fine-tune properties of external-cavity thermoelectric-stabilized mid-infrared quantum-cascade lasers

Continuous, broad, and single-mode wavelength tuning of thermoelectrically cooled short-pulse quantum-cascade lasers is demonstrated with a combination of coarse grating tuning and fine phase tuning of the gain element. This approach overcomes the problem of a poor facet antireflection coating of the gain chip by shifting a Fabry-Perot longitudinal mode to coincide with the desired grating-selected wavelength. The 9-microm laser was tested with NH3 gas absorption and showed fine frequency tuning at a rate of 31 MHz/step and a time-averaged linewidth of 500-750 MHz. The total tuning range was 9.08-9.36 microm and was limited only by the intrinsic gain of the device.     

半导体激光器稳频综述

在冷原子干涉实验中需要用激光冷却并操控原子,因此对半导体激光器频率的稳定性要求较高。由于半导体激光器本身线宽较大,功率稳定性差,还可能产生慢漂和跳模等现象,故需对半导体激光器进行稳频。本文介绍了饱和吸收谱稳频、波长调制稳频、调制光谱稳频、调制转移光谱稳频、双色激光稳频、频率电压转换稳频6种冷原子干涉实验中常用的稳频方法,分别阐述了各方法的原理、特点、适用领域,为半导体激光器的实际应用提供了参考。     

Simultaneous Spectroscopy of NH3 and CO Using a > 50 nm Continuously Tunable MEMS-VCSEL

A fiber-based remote measurement setup for tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy, introducing an electrically pumped, micromechanical vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser with single-mode emission spectrum, narrow linewidth of 40 MHz, and broadband, continuous wavelength coverage of 51 nm around 1.55 mum is presented. The tunable laser spectrometer is employed for analysis of heterogeneous gas compositions and simultaneous detection of two species, ammonia and carbon monoxide, in a single continuous wavelength sweep. Broadband absorbance spectra are captured at elevated temperatures up to 300 degC revealing opposed temperature dependencies for selected transitions.