Sub-Doppler modulation spectroscopy of potassium for laser stabilization

Abstract

We study modulation spectroscopy of the potassium D2 transitions at 766.7 nm. The vapour pressure, controlled by heating a commercial reference cell, is optimized using conventional saturated absorption spectroscopy. Subsequent heterodyne detection yields sub-Doppler frequency discriminants suitable for stabilizing lasers in experiments with cold atoms. Comparisons are made between spectra obtained by direct modulation of the probe beam, and those using modulation transfer from the pump via nonlinear mixing. Finally, suggestions are made for further optimization of the signals.

14 pages, 9 figures; published version, with changes according to referee responses

References in corpus (1)

• Modulation transfer spectroscopy in atomic rubidium

Cited by in corpus (7)

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• A tunable Doppler-free dichroic lock for laser frequency stabilization
• Modulation transfer spectroscopy of ${}^7$Li D1 line