A tunable low-drift laser stabilized to an atomic reference

Abstract

We present a laser system with a linewidth and long-term frequency stability at the 50 kHz level. It is based on a Ti:Sapphire laser emitting radiation at 882 nm which is referenced to an atomic transition. For this, the length of an evacuated transfer cavity is stabilized to a reference laser at 780 nm locked to the ${}^{85}$Rb D${}_2$-line via modulation transfer spectroscopy. Gapless frequency tuning of the spectroscopy laser is realized using the sideband locking technique to the transfer cavity. In this configuration, the linewidth of the spectroscopy laser is derived from the transfer cavity, while the long-term stability is derived from the atomic resonance. Using an optical frequency comb, the frequency stability and linewidth of both lasers are characterized by comparison against an active hydrogen maser frequency standard and an ultra-narrow linewidth laser, respectively. The laser system presented here will be used for spectroscopy of the $1s^{2}2s^{2}2p{}^2{P}_{1/2}-{}^2{P}_{3/2}$ transition in sympathetically cooled Ar${}^{13+}$ ions at 441nm after frequency doubling.

7 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (10)

• 8E-17 fractional laser frequency instability with a long room-temperature cavity
• Modulation transfer spectroscopy in atomic rubidium
• Enhanced laboratory sensitivity to variation of the fine-structure constant using highly-charged ions
• Highly charged ions with E1, M1, and E2 transitions within laser range
• A compact, robust, and transportable ultra-stable laser with a fractional frequency instability of $1\times 10^{-15}$
• Optical transfer cavity stabilization using current-modulated injection-locked diode lasers
• Optical clock sensitive to variation of the fine structure constant based on the Ho${}^{14+}$ ion
• High-bandwidth transfer of phase stability through a fiber frequency comb
• Phase-predictable tuning of single-frequency optical synthesizers
• A tunable CW UV laser with <35 kHz absolute frequency instability for precision spectroscopy of Sr Rydberg states

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Highly charged ions: optical clocks and applications in fundamental physics
• The role of Coulomb anti-blockade in the photoassociation of long-range Rydberg molecules