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Electronics Letters

Precise optical heterodyne beat frequency from laser diodes locked to atomic resonances

Bernard Villeneuve, Normand Cyr, M. Têtu

Published Sep 24, 1987• 8 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Semiconductor lasers locked to atomic resonances provide precise optical frequencies with very good long-term stability. This property can be used in coherent optical communications for obtaining a well defined IF frequency (or frequencies) at the receiver. The letter deals with the optical heterodyne detection of a precise 6.54 GHz frequency offset derived from the hyperfine structure of rubidium 87

DOI
10.1049/el:19870756

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An all-optical locking technique without extra electrical feedback control system for a semiconductor laser has been used in stabilizing the laser frequency to a hyperfine crossover transition of 87Rb 5(2)S(1/2), F = 2 → 5(2)P(3/2), F' = 2, 3 with 1 MHz level accuracy. The optical feedback signal is generated from the narrow-band Faraday anomalous dispersion optical filter (FADOF) with nonlinear saturation effect. The peak transmission of the narrow-band FADOF corresponding to 5(2)S(1/2), F = 2 → 5(2)P(3/2), F' = 2, 3 crossover transition is 18.6 %. The bandwidth is as wide as 38.9 MHz as the laser frequency changes. After locking, the laser frequency fluctuation is reduced to 1.7 MHz. The all-optical laser locking technique can be improved to much higher accuracy with increased external cavity length. The laser we have realized can provide light exactly resonant with atomic transitions used for other atom-light interaction experiments.

Optics Express•Nov 7, 2013•36 citations
Semiconductor lasers locked to atomic resonances provide precise optical frequencies with very good long-term stability. This property can be used in coherent optical communications for obtaining a well defined IF frequency (or frequencies) at the receiver. The letter deals with the optical heterodyne detection of a precise 6.54 GHz frequency offset derived from the hyperfine structure of rubidium 87
In recent years, much work has been done on the frequency stabilization of laser diodes through the electrical feedback loop, using for a frequency discriminator an optical resonator such as a fiber loop, a Fabry-Perot, or an atomic or molecular phenomenon. While allowing a reduction of frequency fluctuations, the lattar approach also gives the possibility of fixing precisely the absolute value of the laser frequency (wavelength) according to the quantum mechanics that govern the optical transition. Thus, if many resonances are observable in a close optical frequency domain, many sources can be set to precise distinguishable frequencies and become part of a muitiwavelength coherent communication system where the channel selectivity is done at the intermediate frequency level.1
The authors have used an electromagnetically induced transparency resonance in rubidium as a dispersive reference to lock the relative frequency of two lasers to the atomic ground-state hyperfine splitting. The beat frequency between the two lasers directly generates a microwave signal at 3.036GHz (Rb85) or 6.835GHz (Rb87). High bandwidth (600kHz) feedback was achieved with only low-frequency (10MHz) electronics using the frequency modulation sideband method. The spectral width of the microwave beat frequency was reduced to less than 1kHz. The technique offers a convenient and low-cost method suitable for many topical two-frequency experiments, including coherent population trapping, slow light, lasing without inversion, and Raman sideband cooling.
In recent years, much work has been done in experimental studies to frequency lock laser diodes to atomic or molecular resonances.1 By such techniques it is possible to improve greatly the laser frequency stability and to define precisely its nominal value. For laser sources operating in the 0.8-μm range, rubidium is the preferred specie and each isotope offers two resonance lines, one at 780 nm (D2 line) and one at 795 nm (D1 line). Both linear and saturated absorption have been used, and laser frequency charcteristics are published.2,3
A simple and robust technique is reported to offset lock a single semiconductor laser to the atom resonance line with a frequency difference easily adjustable from a few tens of megahertz up to tens of gigahertz. The proposed scheme makes use of the frequency modulation spectroscopy by modulating sidebands of a fiber electro-optic modulator output. The short-term performances of a frequency offset locked semiconductor laser are experimentally demonstrated with the Allan variance of around 3.9×10?11 at a 2 s integration time. This method may have many applications, such as in Raman optics for an atom interferometer.
An all-optical locking technique without extra electrical feedback control system for a semiconductor laser has been used in stabilizing the laser frequency to a hyperfine crossover transition of 87Rb 5(2)S(1/2), F = 2 → 5(2)P(3/2), F' = 2, 3 with 1 MHz level accuracy. The optical feedback signal is generated from the narrow-band Faraday anomalous dispersion optical filter (FADOF) with nonlinear saturation effect. The peak transmission of the narrow-band FADOF corresponding to 5(2)S(1/2), F = 2 → 5(2)P(3/2), F' = 2, 3 crossover transition is 18.6 %. The bandwidth is as wide as 38.9 MHz as the laser frequency changes. After locking, the laser frequency fluctuation is reduced to 1.7 MHz. The all-optical laser locking technique can be improved to much higher accuracy with increased external cavity length. The laser we have realized can provide light exactly resonant with atomic transitions used for other atom-light interaction experiments.