Tunable cw UV laser with <35 kHz absolute frequency instability for precision spectroscopy of Sr Rydberg states

Bridge, E.M.; Keegan, N.C.; Bounds, A.D.; Boddy, D.; Sadler, D.P.; Jones, M.P.A.

Abstract

We present a solid-state laser system that generates over 200 mW of continuous-wave, narrowband light, tunable from 316.3 nm – 317.7 nm and 318.0 nm – 319.3 nm. The laser is based on commercially available fiber amplifiers and optical frequency doubling technology, along with sum frequency generation in a periodically poled stoichiometric lithium tantalate crystal. The laser frequency is stabilized to an atomic-referenced high finesse optical transfer cavity. Using a GPS-referenced optical frequency comb we measure a long term frequency instability of < 35 kHz for timescales between 10−3 s and 103 s. As an application we perform spectroscopy of Sr Rydberg states from n = 37 – 81, demonstrating mode-hop-free scans of 24 GHz. In a cold atomic sample we measure Doppler-limited linewidths of 350 kHz.

Citation

Bridge, E., Keegan, N., Bounds, A., Boddy, D., Sadler, D., & Jones, M. (2016). Tunable cw UV laser with

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 21, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Jan 21, 2016
• Publication Date: Jan 21, 2016
• Deposit Date: Aug 26, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 23, 2016
• Journal: Optics Express
• Publisher: Optica
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 2281-2292
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.24.002281
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1423736
• Related Public URLs: http://arxiv.org/abs/1512.04888