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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 9: Laserentwicklung (Halbleiterlaser)
Q 9.5: Talk
Monday, March 10, 2008, 17:30–17:45, 3H
Active frequency stabilization of an infrared diode laser at 1115 nm for the generation of UV light — •Steffen Oppel1, Günter Guthöhrlein2, Wilhelm Kaenders3, and Joachim von Zanthier1 — 1Institut für Optik, Information und Photonik, Max- Planck-Forschungsgruppe, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany — 2Fachbereich Elektrotechnik, Lasertechnik und Werkstofftechnik, Helmut Schmidt Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg, Germany — 3Toptica Photonics AG, Gräfelfing (München), Germany
We present a novel method of active frequency stabilization of a commercial high power external-cavity diode laser near 1115 nm to atomic transitions in praseodymium (Pr I). The spectrum of neutral Pr is recorded in a hollow cathode lamp via laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). Laser irradiation between 1105 and 1123 nm leads to a wide variety of excitation lines with Doppler linewidths of typically 500 MHz, identified via fluorescence light in the visible. The excitation signals are strong enough to enable the lock of the laser onto most of the lines of the spectrum by means of a lock-in detection technique. In this way the frequency drifts of the unlocked laser (of more than 30 MHz/h) can be reduced to below 2 MHz/h. Frequency quadrupling of the referenced infrared diode laser can produce in the future frequency-stable UV-light in the range 276 - 281 nm. In particular, using a strong hyperfine component of the excitation line E=16502,616J=7/2 cm−1→ E′=25442,742J=9/2o cm−1 of Pr at 1118,54 nm allows - after frequency quadruplification - to excite the D2-transition of trapped Mg+ ions at 279,64 nm.