Optical pumping of rubidium atoms with tunable laser diodes

M. Têtu, Normand Cyr, Bernard Villeneuve +3 more

A. Pietiläinen, A. Äijälä, H. Ludvigsen +3 more

Andrew N. Kanagin, Pawan Pathak, Sameer K. Regmi +2 more

C. I. Laidler, S. Eriksson

We show that nonlinear dynamics in diode lasers with optical injection leads to frequency tunable microwave sidebands which are suitable for atomic physics experiments. We demonstrate the applicability of the sidebands in an experiment where rubidium atoms are magneto-optically trapped with both the trap and the re-pump optical frequencies derived from one optically injected laser. We find linewidth narrowing in the optical spectrum of the injected laser at both the injection frequency and the sideband frequency. With strong optical injection which leads to frequency locking we find a complete linewidth transfer from the master to the slave. Further applications are discussed.

Fernand D. Bedard

Zhiyong Li, Rongqing Tan, Cheng Xu +1 more

Linewidth of a laser diode stack with 5 bar is reduced to 0.2 nm from 1.8 nm through the use of an external volume Bragg grating (VBG) cavity. The temperature of the VBG is controlled efficiently to make the central wavelength tunable. The linewidth changes little in the wavelength-tuning experiments. Since the tunable range covers the rubidium D2 absorption line, the stack can be used to pump the rubidium laser efficiently.