Piezo-locking a diode laser with saturated absorption spectroscopy

J. E. Debs, N. P. Robins, A. Lance, M. B. Kruger, J. D. Close

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    26 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We demonstrate modulation-based frequency locking of an external cavity diode laser, utilizing a piezoelectrically actuated mirror, external to the laser cavity, to create an error signal from saturated absorption spectroscopy. With this method, a laser stabilized to a rubidium hyperfine transition has a FWHM of 130 kHz over seconds, making the locked laser suitable for experiments in atomic physics, such as creating and manipulating Bose-Einstein condensates. This technique combines the advantages of low-amplitude modulation, simplicity, performance, and price, factors that are usually considered to be mutually exclusive.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)5163-5166
    Number of pages4
    JournalApplied Optics
    Volume47
    Issue number28
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2008

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