Far off-resonance laser frequency stabilization using multipass cells in Faraday rotation spectroscopy

Abstract

We propose a far off-resonance laser frequency stabilization method by using multipass cells in Rb Faraday rotation spectroscopy. Based on the detuning equation, if multipass cells with several meters optical path length are used in the conventional Faraday spectroscopy, the detuning of the lock point can be extended much further from the alkali metal resonance. A plate beam splitter was used to generate two different Faraday signals at the same time. The transmitted optical path length was L=50 mm and the reflected optical path length was 2L=100 mm. When the optical path length doubled, the detuning of the lock points moved further away from the atomic resonance. The temperature dependence of the detuning of the lock point was also analyzed. A temperature-insensitive lock point was found near resonance when the cell temperature was between 110°C and 130°C. We achieved an rms fluctuation of 0.9 MHz/23 h at a detuning of 0.5 GHz. A frequency drift of 16 MHz/h at a detuning of -5.6 GHz and 4 MHz/h at a detuning of -5.2 GHz were also obtained for the transmitted and reflected light Faraday signal.