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American Journal of Physics

Inexpensive diode laser microwave modulation for atom trapping

Paul Feng, Thad G Walker

Published Oct 1, 1995• 21 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We describe a simple modification to a grating-stabilized diode laser intended for use in neutral atom cooling and trapping. Modulation of the laser diode’s driving current at microwave frequencies induces sidebands in the laser’s spectrum that eliminate the need for a second laser in a trapping apparatus, yielding a considerable savings in effort and cost. A detailed description of the process for selection and assembly of microwave components is given. In an appendix we list the hardware used, with vendor and pricing information.

DOI
10.1119/1.18031

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We describe a simple modification to a grating-stabilized diode laser intended for use in neutral atom cooling and trapping. Modulation of the laser diode’s driving current at microwave frequencies induces sidebands in the laser’s spectrum that eliminate the need for a second laser in a trapping apparatus, yielding a considerable savings in effort and cost. A detailed description of the process for selection and assembly of microwave components is given. In an appendix we list the hardware used, with vendor and pricing information.
We have demonstrated microwave modulation of a diode laser which is operated with optical feedback from a diffraction grating. By directly modulating the diode laser current at frequencies up to 6.8 GHz, we observed 2-30% of the laser power in a single sideband for 20mW of microwave power. Using such a diode laser modulated at 6.6GHz, we have trapped {sup 87}Rb in a vapor cell. With 10mW of microwave power, the number of trapped atoms was only 15% smaller than the number obtained using two lasers in the conventional manner. A microwave modulated diode laser should also be useful for driving stimulated Raman transitions between the hyperfine levels of Rb or Cs.
We demonstrate direct microwave modulation of diode lasers operated with optical feedback from a diffraction grating. We obtain substantial fractions of the laser power (2–30%) in a single sideband at frequencies as high 6.8 GHz with 20 mW of microwave power and simple inefficient microwave coupling. Using a single diode as modulated at 6.6 GHz, we trapped 87Rb atoms in a vapor cell. With only 10 mW of microwave power we laser trapped 85% as many atoms as were obtained by using two lasers in the conventional manner.
The use of light presure to cool and stop neutral atoms has been an area of considerable interest recently. Cooled neutral atoms are needed for a variety of interesting experiments involving neutral atom traps and ultrahigh-resolution spectroscopy. Laser cooling of sodium has previously been demonstrated using elegant but quite elaborate apparatus.1,2 These techniques employed stabilized dye lasers and a variety of additional sophisticated hardware. We have demonstrated that the frequency chirp technique of Ref. 2 can be implemented using inexpensive diode lasers and simple electronics.
The theory of cooling neutral atoms to microkelvin temperatures using a magneto optical trap will be presented. The system that is discussed uses a stabilized grating tuned diode laser that is controlled using feedback from a saturation absorption spectrophotometer to produce narrow band continuously tunable IR light for trapping rubidium atoms. A description of the design and construction of each of the components used to create the magneto optical trap will also be discussed. In the final section a description of an exceptionally accurate atomic clock that is used to measure the natural resonance frequency of laser cooled cesium atoms is also presented.