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Review of Scientific Instruments

Acousto-optic modulator based frequency stabilized diode laser system for atom trapping

Peter D. McDowall, Mikkel F. Andersen

Published May 1, 2009• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report on an inexpensive commercial laser diode stabilized to the D(2)-line in rubidium using a simple scheme. The linewidth was reduced to 1.3 MHz without an external cavity, making it suitable for laser cooling and trapping. The system is very robust and the laser frequency can be changed rapidly (within 51 micros) while the laser remains in lock. The frequency of the locked laser drifts less than 850 kHz peak-to-peak over 25 h. We demonstrate laser cooling and trapping using our system.

DOI
10.1063/1.3125029

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We report on an inexpensive commercial laser diode stabilized to the D(2)-line in rubidium using a simple scheme. The linewidth was reduced to 1.3 MHz without an external cavity, making it suitable for laser cooling and trapping. The system is very robust and the laser frequency can be changed rapidly (within 51 micros) while the laser remains in lock. The frequency of the locked laser drifts less than 850 kHz peak-to-peak over 25 h. We demonstrate laser cooling and trapping using our system.
We demonstrate a robust method of stabilizing a diode laser frequency to an atomic transition. This technique employs the Zeeman shift to generate an antisymmetric signal about a Doppler-broadened atomic resonance, and therefore offers a large recapture range as well as high stability. The frequency of a 780-nm diode laser, stabilized to such a signal in Rb, drifted less than 0.5 MHz peak-peak (1 part in 10(9)) in 38 h. This tunable frequency lock can be constructed inexpensively, requires little laser power, rarely loses lock, and can be extended to other wavelengths by use of different atomic species.
We discuss the characterization and specifications of a home-built external cavity diode laser system that is suitable for frequency-domain cold-atom velocimetry and measurements of gravitational acceleration. The laser system is frequency stabilized using a modulation-free technique that lowers the temperature of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) in comparison with a MOT realized using a laser that relies on lock-in spectroscopy. The laser system also incorporates a feedback loop involving an acousto-optic modulator for intensity stabilization, which reduces the effect of low frequency vibrations. By integrating this laser with a home-built, dual-output radio frequency synthesizer, we are able to derive two laser beams with a precisely controlled relative detuning for frequency domain interferometry using laser-cooled atoms. The detuning can range from the mHz to the MHz level with a stability of 10 μHz.
We report on a frequency stabilized laser system with a variable linewidth at a wavelength of 404.7 nm used as an incoherent repump on the 6P30↔7S31 transition in mercury. By directly modulating the laser diode current with Gaussian white noise, the laser linewidth can be broadened up to 68 MHz. A Doppler-free dichroic atomic vapor laser lock spectroscopy provides an error signal suitable for frequency stabilization even for the broadened laser. Without the need of an acousto-optic modulator for the linewidth tuning or lock-in technique for frequency stabilization, this laser system provides an inexpensive approach for an incoherent and highly efficient repumper in atomic experiments.
A sub-MHz frequency stability of the laser is crucial in the quantum-atom experiment where precise atomic transition is required for control and manipulation of atom like in the atom quantum computing. In this work, we have built the frequency stabilization system for the lasers used in our cold Rubidium atom experiment in the magneto-optical trap (MOT) and the optical tweezers. We utilized a Rubidium vapour glass cell as a frequency reference, which provides atomically absolute reference point with low complexity setup. By mean of the absorption of the laser beam by the Rubidium vapour, the Doppler-free saturated absorption (DFSA) experiment was setup to produce the D2 line spectra. The acousto-optic modulator (AOM) was used to sinusoidally dither the laser frequency and consequently the resonance peaks in the spectra. Detailing in this work, the AOM sinusoidal dithering and the dithered DFSA signal had orthogonality and were processed together to produce the error signal used to stabilize the laser frequency to the resonant peak. This frequency stabilization system achieved the frequency standard deviation below 0.75 MHz over 200 minutes period. The system also allowed for stabilized frequency tunability over a range of 55-60 MHz about the target resonance peak. This performance is significant for stabilizing the lasers in the MOT experiment and related quantum-atom research.
The diode laser system for laser cooling on the 1S 0 → 3P1 intercombination line of strontium discussed in this thesis allows us to cool and trap an atomic strontium sample to 15 muK. Samples in this temperature range are useful for the development of the next generation of atomic frequency standards, cold collision studies, and as a step towards quantum degeneracy. This laser system consists of a Littrow configuration external-cavity diode laser, which is frequency locked to a high finesse cavity. The cavity is subsequently locked to an absorption feature to produce a few mW of tunable, stabilized, single mode power at the target wavelength. We present the design and characterization of this system, including a linewidth measurement of 70 kHz, as well as preliminary results from cooling and trapping.
This project sets out to frequency stabilize external cavity diode lasers of wavelengths λ = 935 nm and 739 nm, with an eye to Ytterbium-171 ion trapping.The desired laser linewidths were below 1 MHz at 1 second observation time and the desired long term frequency drifts were below a megahertz over the course of a few hours.To stabilize the lasers, two Pound-Drever-Hall laser frequency stabilisation systems were designed, constructed and characterized.The optical frequency references used were sub-megahertz linewidth optical cavities with Invar spacers.These cavities were designed and constructed inhouse.The achieved long term stability of the stabilized lasers was 1 MHz/h over a 5 hour measurement period.The laser frequency long term stabilities are limited by the thermal stabilities of the cavity spacers.The post stabilisation laser frequency noise was lowered when compared to the free running lasers.This was observed by determining the laser frequency noise power spectral densities.From the frequency noise power spectral densities lower bounds on the locked laser linewidths were established.This lower bound is 11.92 kHz for the 739 nm wavelength laser at 1 second observation time and 5.4 kHz for the 935 nm wavelength laser.An additional system was designed and constructed ii