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.

doi:10.1364/oe.24.002281

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.

Authors

Dr Liz Bridge elizabeth.bridge@durham.ac.uk
Academic Visitor

N.C. Keegan

A.D. Bounds

D. Boddy

D.P. Sadler

Professor Matthew Jones m.p.a.jones@durham.ac.uk
Professor

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
Related Public URLs	http://arxiv.org/abs/1512.04888