STABILIZATION OF 960 NM LASER USING

POUND-DREVER-HALL TECHNIQUE
SUBMITTED
BY
MADE SURYA ADHIWIRAWAN
LASER FREQUENCY STABILISATION WITH
MODULATION TRANSFER SPECTROSCOPY
SUBMITTED
BY
YONG MINGLI
DIVISION OF PHYSICS AND APPLIED PHYSICS
SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES
A nal year project report
presented to
Nanyang Technological University
in partial fulllment of the
requirements for the
Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Physics
June 2011
i
DIVISION PHYSICS AND APPLIED PHYSICS
SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES
LASER FREQUENCY STABILISATION WITH
MODULATION TRANSFER SPECTROSCOPY
SUBMITTED
BY
YONG MINGLI
DIVISION OF PHYSICS AND APPLIED PHYSICS
SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES
A nal year project report
presented to
Nanyang Technological University
in partial fulllment of the
requirements for the
Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Physics
June 2011
i
A nal year project report
presented to
Nanyang Technological University
in partial fulllment of the
requirements for the
Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Physics
LASER FREQUENCY STABILISATION WITH
MODULATION TRANSFER SPECTROSCOPY
SUBMITTED
BY
YONG MINGLI
DIVISION OF PHYSICS AND APPLIED PHYSICS
SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES
A nal year project report
presented to
Nanyang Technological University
in partial fulllment of the
requirements for the
Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Physics
June 2011
i
April 2012
Abstract
Stabilization of 960 nm laser could not be simply done by using Doppler-free saturated absoption
spectroscopy since there is no convenient atomic transition for locking a laser at that particular
wavelength. We designed a system where a 780 nm laser that is locked at 5
2
S
1/2
5
2
P
3/2
trasition of Rubidium (Rb) atom can be used as primary reference to stabilize the length of a
high nesse cavity. The stable cavity is then expected to be applied in a Pound-Drever-Hall
technique for laser stabilization to lock the 960 nm laser.
Acknowledgement
My greatest gratitude goes toward my supervisor, Asst. Prof. Rainer Helmut Dumke, who has
been helping me, guiding me, and teaching me a lot in the making of this project. Huge thanks
to my lab-mate: Maral, Mingli, Andrew, Fong En, Kin Sung and Mohan for all the awesome
help and patience in answering my questions and doubts. Thanks to my best friends, Nino,
Alvin, and Adhit for the endless support and all the good time and laughter every night after
every restless day at lab. Thanks to my sister Udayapinasthikaswasti for the constant support,
encouragement and advice whenever I need her. Thanks to Dian Charlo for being a really nice
roomie. And lastly, a big thanks to my parents, my brothers, and all who have been supporting
me all this time. Thank you so much.
1
Contents
1 Introduction 7
1.1 Past Works on Laser Stabilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2 Organization of the reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2 Theory 10
2.1 Fabry-Perot Cavity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.1 Reection and Transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.2 Free Spectral Range, Finesse and Cavity Linewidth . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2 General Laser Feedback System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3 Pound-Drever-Hall Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3 Experimental Realization 18
3.1 The Laser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.1.1 Laser Box Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.1.2 Saturation Spectroscopy Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1.3 Final Setup of 780 nm Laser Stabilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2 Cavity Stabilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2.1 The Cavity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2.2 Other Components for Cavity Stabilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.2.3 Final Setup of Cavity Stabilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2.4 Initial Design of the Cavity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.3 960 nm Laser Stabilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.3.1 Stabilization Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2
4 Summary and Outlook 38
4.1 Overall Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.2 Future Application of the Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3
List of Figures
2.1 Reected and transmitted light in a Fabry-Perot cavity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 FSR and cavity linewidth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3 General laser feedback system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4 Demodulation signal after the lock-in amplier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.5 Setup of laser stabilization using PDH technique. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.6 Demodulation signal using PDH Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1 Photo of laser diode that we use (left) and the schematic diagram showing its
internal connection (right) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.2 Input current vs output intensity of the free running laser diode. . . . . . . . . . 19
3.3 Combi Controller. Temperature controller (left) and current controller (right) . . 20
3.4 (a) Atoms move in dierent direction give rise to doppler broadening. (b) Broad-
ening of the frequency spectrum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.5 Distribution of atoms in ground state (a) before laser absorption and (b) after
laser absoption. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.6 Doppler-free saturation spectroscopy setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.7 Design of 780 nm Laser Stabilization Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.8 Wavelength range of the plano mirror. Red and Blue line represent the 45
o
and
0
o
angle of incidence, respectively. (Image Courtesy of Photonik Singapore Pte
Ltd) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.9 Wavelength response of the concave mirror CVMB-R10-350 (Image Courtesy of
Photonik Singapore Pte Ltd) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.10 Plano-concave cavity conguration. Note that the length of the cavity L is equal
to the radius of curvature r
c
of the concave mirror. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4
3.11 In this measurement, the ECDL operates at 79.47 mA and temperature23
o
C.
The resistance value in the temperature controller can easily be converted to
temperature unit using a simple formula in this Combi Controllers manual book. 27
3.12 Piezoelectric ring (green-coloured) oscillates the mirror. While scaning in its
amplitude range, at some points the mirror will exactly at the resonant state of
the cavity. This resonant was observed as a series of peak in the oscilloscope (See
Figure 3.15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.13 Cavity test setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.14 Function generator in operation. Triangular waves of frequency 500 Hz, ampli-
tude 4 V and DC Oset -7% were given to the piezoelectric ring. . . . . . . . . . 29
3.15 Photograph of what we obtain from this cavity test setup. The upper signal
is coming from Channel 1, which is the triangle wave given to the piezo and
Channel 2 is the signal from photodiode. Channel 2 was inverted because it is
more convenient to see the resonant states indicated as peaks. . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.16 (top) Electro Optic Modulator, (bottom) typical EOM Driver Circuit use CRT
Driver to amplify the oscillationg signal from function generator . . . . . . . . . 30
3.17 Photodiode used in our experiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.18 Piezoelectric ring in our experiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.19 Cavity Stabilization Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.20 As mentioned previously at section 2.3, the error signal from PDH techniques has
this kind of shape. It has a very steep slope at zero crossing. The critical point,
or the ending of these two slopes, found out to be at v/2 and v/2 where v
is the cavity linewidth. In our experiment the cavity linewidth is expected to be
around 250 450 Hz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.21 Dimension and components of the initial cavity design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.22 3D model of the initinal cavity design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.23 Stabilization setup for 960 nm laser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.1 Diagram of overall setup design. The grey part is the 780 nm laser stabilization
setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5
4.2 Diagram of Grating-stabilized ECDL Design [13], The design of our laser box is
inspired by design of L. Ricci et al. and C.J. Hawthron et al. : (A) Top View,
(B) Side View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.3 Photograph of the ECDL box with the top and the side cover openned. The cable
connection on the top of the image are connecting the ECDL to the temperature
controller, current controller and PI Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.4 PI Controller Circuit. It consist of series of Proportional-Intergral components
and a trangle/TTL signal source. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Past Works on Laser Stabilization
Development of laser with narrow linewidth has openned possibilities for many experiments in
the eld of quantum information [1, 2], laser cooling [3, 5, 6], high precession measurement [7],
frequency metrology [4] and many more. Various sophisticated techniques have been used to
achieve a minimum bandwidth possible, however the challenge is not just about minimizing the
bandwidth, but also on how to do it in various frequency. In fact, the method used to stabilize
a laser at one frequency could be quite dierent with the one used for another frequency.
A typical commercial He-Ne laser has frequency bandwidth around 1500 MHz. This band-
width is denetely not suitable for high precession application which requires range of band-
width tolerance of few hundreds Hertz or may even be around 1 2 Hz [9]. Some methods
such as polarization spectroscopy, Dichroic-Atomic-Vapor Laser Lock (DAVLL), Dither Lock [8],
Doppler-free saturated absorption spectroscopy [10] and Pound-Drever-Hall technique [9] have
been used to minimize the bandwidth and keep the laser stably operating at certain central
frequency. Most the them are basically using atomic spectroscopy technique, in which having a
laser beam interact with gaseous sample of atoms, and that will then trigger some atomic tran-
sitions with correspond to certain wavelength. By some lock-in and servo circuits, the signal
received would then be fed back to the laser.
DAVLL method was invented by Cheron et al. in 1994 and rst demonstrated on alkali
vapour by Corwin et al. in 1998. This technique uses a magnetic eld to split the Doppler-
7
broadened absorption signal into its Zeeman components, inducing circular dichroism and bire-
fringence of the atomic vapor. The signal is then brought to lock-in amplier and servo as
feedback to the laser. A reseach done by C. Lee et all found that DAVLL method is capable of
reducing laser bandwidth to 16 MHz [12]. Dither lock, on the other hand, works by modulating
input current of the laser diode. Similarly, it also uses atomic vapor as main reference and
feedback loop to stabilize the laser. A study has shown that Dither lock is capable of reducing
bandwidth up to 3 MHz [8]. Polarization spectroscopy was rst demonstrated by Wieman and
Hansch in 1976 on the Hydrogen Balmer- line. Here the laser beam is divided into two, one is
probe beam and another one is pump beam which are counterpropagating to one another inside
an atomic vapor cavity to trigger exication at certain central wavelength. The probe beam
is then divided into two polarized beam using a polarizing beam splitter and both signal are
combined and processed in the lock-in and servo circuit as feedback signal. Bandwidth locking
by using this method was obeserved to reach 2 MHz [8].
Doppler-free saturated absorption spectroscopy was rst developed by the research group
of Arthur L. Schawlow, who won the Nobel prize on 1981. It works in almost the same way
with the polarization spectroscopy. This method is insensitive toward doppler-broadening due
to red-shifted and blue-shifted absorption frequency because of random velocity of the atomic
vapor that is used as reference. Doppler-free saturated absorption spectroscopy is the one that
we use in our experiment to lock the 780 nm laser. Using this spectroscopy, 14 2 MHz of
linewidth had ever been successfully achieved [14]. Details on how this method works will be
explained futher in Chapter 3.
Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) technique of laser stabilization was named after R. V. Pound,
Ronald Drever, and John L. Hall who invented it in 1983. This method used an ultra-stable
cavity as reference. Basically, this method works by actively tuning the laser to match the
resonance condition of the cavity. A previous research using PDH technique on laser stabilization
on 729 nm Titanium-Sapphire laser for spectroscopy of Calcium ion has successfully achieved
1.7 0.1 Hz linewidth.
In this project, the main objective is to design a system to lock a 960 nm laser. At this
wavelength, stabilization of laser could not simply be done by using Doppler-free saturated
absoption spectroscopy since there is no convenient atomic transition for locking a laser at 960
nm. Therefore we propose a design to lock 960 nm laser using PDH technique, and hence using
8
a cavity as the reference. Since we could not provide advance mechanical support for an ultra-
stable cavity, we also propose the design of cavity stabilization technique using a stable 780 nm
as the reference. Furthermore, the 780 nm laser itself has its own stabilizition, i.e. using the
Doppler-free saturated absorption spectroscopy of Rubidium atomic vapor cell.
1.2 Organization of the reports
In Chapter 2 of this report, some background theories related to the project are presented.
Section 2.1 will explain the reection-transmission behaviour of a Fabri-Perrot cavity, continued
by mathematical expression of its properties such as the free spectral range (FSR), nesse and
linewidth. General laser feedback system is then introduced in Section 2.2, where a simple laser
stabilization using modulator-oscillator-LIA (Lock-In Amplier) is being used as an example.
In Section 3.3, the theory behind Pound Drever Hall Technique is briey explained.
Chapter 3 contains the experimental realization of this project. The rst part (Section 3.1)
is going to discuss in detail about the building of stabilization system for a grating-stabilized
External Cavity Diode Laser (ECDL), in which we would like to achieve a very stable 780 nm
laser with narrow bandwitdh. This stable laser is then to be used as a reference to stabilize our
cavity (Section 3.2). Once the ultra-stable cavity is achieved, we are going to explain how to
use it to stabilize the 960 nm laser using the PDH Technique (Section 3.3). Furthermore, the
initial design of our cavity which have yet to be built is also going to be shown (Section 3.4).
In the last chapter, Chapter 4, we give a brief outlook and summary containing the over-
all design setup of this project, what we have done and also suggestions for future work or
application.
9
Chapter 2
Theory
2.1 Fabry-Perot Cavity
2.1.1 Reection and Transmission
Fabry-Perot Cavity consists of two mirrors, coaxially alligned and separated at a distance L.
When a beam of light with wavelength projected to one of the mirror, some of the light will
be transmitted and some will be reected. The transmitted (E
t
) and reected beam (E
r
) are
given by
E
t
= tE
i
(2.1)
E
r
= rE
r
(2.2)
where t and r are the transimission and reection coeecient, respectively. They are related by
r
2
+t
2
= 1 and 1 r, t 0.
Basic setup of Fabry-Perot cavity can be seen in Figure 2.1. Mirror 1 and 2 have their own
relection (r
1
, r
2
) and transmission (t
1
, t
2
) coecients. Multiple reections and transmissons
between those mirrors create multiple beams that interfere with each other. This interference
determines the output of the cavity with respect to certain wavelength. When double length of
the cavity is (2L) exactly multiple of , then resonance would happen in the cavity. At resonance,
the the total transimission of that particular wavelength will be at maximum (100%), and hence
the total reection will be minimum (0%).
10
Figure 2.1: Reected and transmitted light in a Fabry-Perot cavity.
Suppose the incident light beam is E
i
= E
0
e
it
, and is phase shift due to light path
while travelling from one mirror to another and back again. The total reected beam is given
by
E
r
= E
i
(r
1
+t
1
r
2
t
1
+t
1
r
2
r
1
r
2
t
1
()
2
+t
1
r
2
r
1
r
2
r
1
r
2
t
1
()
3
+...)
= E
0
e
it
_
r
1
+t
2
1
r
2
(1 +r
1
r
2
+ (r
1
r
2
)
2
+...)
_
= E
0
e
it
_
r
1
+
t
2
1
r
2

1 r
1
r
2

_
If the reection coecient of both mirrors are really high ( > 99%), we can use approximation
that r
1
= r
2
and t
1
= t
2
, which yields
E
r
= E
0
r
1
e
it
_
1
1 r
2
1

_
(2.3)
Moreover, = e
2(
2L

)
, where 2L is the length of one roundtrip between the mirrors. From
this expression, it is clear that there will be no reection (E
r
= 0) when = 1, or 2L/ = n,
where n is an integer. This properties will be useful for future application of the cavity which
11
is going to be discussed in the next chapter.
2.1.2 Free Spectral Range, Finesse and Cavity Linewidth
Free Spectral Range (FSR), nesse and cavity linewidth - or also known as FWHM (Full Width
at Half Maximum)- are three other important parameters of a cavity, especially for our ap-
plication. Both are dening how good is the cavity in dierentiating between one resonant
wavelength and another resonant wavelength.
FSR is the distance between two frequency modes peaks where the interference of light is
highly constructive (i.e. the resonance state). Cavity nesse (F) roughly represents how contrast
is the the maximum transimission value of the cavity with respect to its lowest transmission
value. Whereas, cavity linewidth or FWHM is the width of frequency range at half maximum
of the transmission peak.
Figure 2.2: FSR and cavity linewidth.
To nd the equation that expresses FSR, suppose a light of wavelength matches one mode
of the cavity, and another light with wavelength

is in the next mode of the cavity. We can

write m = 2L and (m+ 1)

= 2L. Then if we substract these two equations, we obtain

(m+ 1) m =
2L

2L

1 = 2L
_

2
= 2L
12
where =

. And since = c/f, we can write equation above as

c
2
2Lf
2
= c
_
1
f

1
f

_
c
2Lf
2
=
f
f(f + f)
f =
c
2L
_
1 +
f
f
_
f =
c/2L
_
1
c
2Lf
_ (2.4)
This f is actually the FSR. In our case, c/2L f, therefore
FSR =
c
2L
(2.5)
In our experiment, since the length of the cavity is L = 350 mm, the FSR is 428 MHz.
Cavity nesse F is directly related to reectivity of the mirrors. It can be calculated using
the following equation [3]
F =

R
1 R
(2.6)
for our cavity, F is between 1000 and 2000. In Figure 2.2 we can see that F has higher peak
contrast compared to that of F

, hence F > F

.
FWHM is simply calculated using the following equation
v =
FSR
F
(2.7)
In Figure 2.2, we can see that as FSR increases, we can expect that the width of each peak
becomes wider and wider. However bigger nesse will keep narrowing the width of the peak.
Later in the next section, we can see that v of the cavity determines the slope of the locking
signal and therefore the performance of the lockin in Pound-Drever-Hall technique. For our
cavity, the FWHM is expected to be around 250 450 Hz.
13
2.2 General Laser Feedback System
In general, to set a laser to work at certain frequency, we use a feedback system. Meaning that
we are setting a system that is able to detect the amount of error or displacement of frequency
value from the original set point, and use a servo to set the value back to the desired value.
Figure below describes a laser feedback system in general
Figure 2.3: General laser feedback system.
Suppose we give certain set-point to the Piezoelectric Transducer (PZT) of the laser to
achieve lasing state at a desired frequency. Because of varying temperature or any other un-
expected factors, the position of the grating (or internal cavity length) may displace. This
displacement causes slight error in the wavelength (hence frequency) value and therefore spoil
the experiment. To handle this, we put a chopper, or anything that would give modulation
frequency to the output light.
This frequency would then go to the experiment, and it would get some noises due to
the environment (such as, light-buld frequency in the room, sunlight frequency, noises from
instruments, unexpected interference, etc). This noise has to be dismissed, therefore before we
sent the signal to the servo (PI Controller) we have to send the signal to a lock-in-amplier,
which basically will mix the signal from photodiode with the frequency of local oscillator to let
the original signal from the laser pass while cancelling the noise. Additionally we may put a
low-pass lter to extract any resulting DC component.
From the lock-in-amplier, the signal will be passed to PI controller, which would recognize
the amount of error brought by the signal, and try to adjust it back to the original set point
which is the desired value. Output signal from PI Controller will be sent back to the laser box,
14
and will change the PZT voltage to let it back to the correct position.
Let us consider it quantitatively. Suppose that the original signal frequency from the laser
is
o
. This frequency is then modulated by Asin t by the modulator. The resulting frequency
would be
(t) =
o
+Acos t (2.8)
The frequency will correspond to a voltage V (). With Taylor expansion and noting that A
2
terms and higher is very small, we obtain
V () = V (
o
) +
dV
d
Acos t +O(A
2
)
V () V (
o
) +
dV
d
Acos t
This term will them mixed with frequency from local oscillator cos(t +) to be
V

= V (
o
) cos(t +) +
dV
d
Acos t cos(t +)
= V (
o
) cos(t +) +
1
2
A
dV
d
cos(2t +) +
1
2
A
dV
d
cos
by applying a low-pas lter, we can extract the third terms (the DC term) hence the error signal
that we sent to the servo is
V

=
1
2
Acos
dV
d
(2.9)
Note that the shape of error signal depends on the derivative of V with respect to . is the
phase dierence which we can adjust to be equal to zero ( = 0).
In this experiment V as function of near the central wavelength shows a Lorentzian-shaped
graph. Its derivative can be seen in Figure 2.4 where there is steep curve at zero crossing. This
steep is the expression of error value that is going to be recognized by the PI Controller to be
able set how much change should it make on the PZT to set the laser frequency back to the
correct value.
15
Figure 2.4: Demodulation signal after the lock-in amplier
2.3 Pound-Drever-Hall Technique
Figure 2.5: Setup of laser stabilization using PDH technique.
This technique uses Electro-Optic Modulator (EOM) which will create frequency sidebands
driven by a local oscillator. Suppose the electromagnetic eld of laser output from ECDL is
E
o
e
it
. When passing through the EOM, its frequency will be modulated such that it becomes
E = E
o
e
i(t+Asin t)
, Where A is a constant determining the magnitude of modulation and
is the modulation frequency. This expression can be expanded using Bessel function to be
E E
o
_
J
o
(A)e
it
+J
1
(A)e
i(+)t
J
1
(A)e
i()t
_
(2.10)
Note that here A is relatively small. Above equation shows that the laser after the EOM can be
described as three waves with frequency , +, and . The laser will then propagate into
an ultrastable cavity as shown in Figure 2.5. Each of the waves will be reected by the cavity
16
where the reection coecient is
R() =
E
r
E
i
=
r(e
i

FSR
1)
1 r
2
e
i

FSR
(2.11)
Such that the reected wave can be written as
E
R
= E
o
_
J
o
(A)R()e
it
+J
1
(A)R( +)e
i(+)t
J
1
(A)R( )e
i()t
_
(2.12)
The power of this reected wave is proportional to photodetector voltage. It is given by
P
r
= |E
r
|
2
= E

r
E
r
= P
c
|F()|
2
+P
s
|F( +)|
2
+P
s
|F( )|
2
+2
_
P
c
P
s
({F()F ( +) F ()F( )} cos t
+{F()F ( +) F ()F( )} sin t) + (2 terms)
Where P
c
is the power brought by central wavelength (P
c
= E
2
o
J
2
o
), and P
s
is the power brought
by sideband frequency (P
s
= E
2
o
J
2
1
). Signal from photodiode will be sent to mixer, which will
mix them with the frequency from local oscillaltor (sin t) to demodulated the signal. This will
produce lock-in signal as depicted in Figure 2.6. Further discussion about PDH technique will
be presented in Chapter 3.
Figure 2.6: Demodulation signal using PDH Technique
17
Chapter 3
Experimental Realization
3.1 The Laser
3.1.1 Laser Box Setup
To begin the whole experiment, it is essential that we have good laser with good controlabilty
over its frequency, power, polarization and linewidth. In this experiment we built our own
grating-stabilized external cavity diode laser (grating-stabilized ECDL) as the main source of
the laser. This type of laser has widespread applications in optical and atomic physics. The
design uses a relatively inexpensive yet reliable diode lasers which is electrically driven by giving
them certain electric current. The diode is then coupled to a diraction grating which provides
the behavior of an external cavity to be used as the wavelength-selective element, which then
provides frequency-selective optical feedback to the diode laser. This concept of frequency
selective feedback allows the laser to achieve narrow linewidth and remarkable tunability.
According to Littrow conguration, the grating have to be aligned such that the 1
st
order
diraction from the grating is coupled directly back into the laser while the 0
th
-order diraction
is reected as the output beam. A convex lens is properly placed in front of the laser diode to
collimate the laser beam. The lasing wavelength is dependent of the incident laser beam.
Diode laser that works at frequency near the
87
Rb D
2
transition of 780 nm are commercially
available. In this experiment we use laser diode model Roithner Lasertechnik ADL-78901TX
AlGaAs. This laser diode has a rated maximum power of 100 mW with peak frequency at
785 nm. This frequency is infrared-red range and is visible with bare eyes when we do the
18
experiment.
Figure 3.1: Photo of laser diode that we use (left) and the schematic diagram showing its internal
connection (right)
The laser diode would produce the light when certain current is given to point 1 and 2. The
laser diode has current vs output relation as described in Figure 3.2. You can see that the laser
has threshold of emitting light at around 30 mA.
Figure 3.2: Input current vs output intensity of the free running laser diode.
A diaction grating, model Thorlabs GH13-18V, is used in this experiment to create optical
feedback as well as transmitting the laser output. It has 1800 lines/mm such that the 1
st
order and the 0
th
order is perpendicularly separated (approximately around 90
o
.) The grating
is oriented vertically so that it would be parallel to the laser polarization.
19
We have a L-shaped metal piece and a grating mount as the main block to host the diode, the
diraction grating and the collimation lens. They are made of Nickel Silver
1
with low thermal
coecient and high thermal conductivity. This main block design has a cylindrical collimation
tube (model: Thorlabs LT230A) on it to ease us when aligning the laser diode and a collimation
lens (model C230TME, aspherical, focal length = 4.51 mm). This colimation tube allow the
lens to move forward and backward when we are looking for the exact position where the laser
is perfectly collimated. We have Silicone thermal compound material between the tube and the
block to provide good thermal conductivity. On the other hand, the grating mount has a place
for the PZT and screws for horizontal adjustment. This grating mount can easily be rotated
around an axis while we do alignment to achieve lasing state.
Temperature of the the laser diode, the block and grating mount must be kept stable, so
this design has Peltier element (thermoelectric cooler, Marlow Industries) between the blocks
and the external metal casing. A thermistor (R = 10k at 25
o
C) is placed inside the block at
a distance 5 mm above the Peltier element. Together, they will be connected to a temperature
controller with a built-in PI controller.
The external metal casing is used to isolated the whole allignment from external disturbance
(i.e. thermal, mechanical and electrical disturbance). Some holes are drilled at one face of the
casing to put BNC and other external cable connections.
Figure 3.3: Combi Controller. Temperature controller (left) and current controller (right)
We also have combi controller, which is a temperature controller and current controller
combined. The temperature controller part has PID Controller which has to be set up to make
the temperature stabilization run faster. It is able to show our set-point temperature and the
actual temperature of the block. The current controller part allow us to adjust the amount of
current given to the laser diode as well as the power and the voltage. Overall drawing of this
1
a alloy of 65% copper, 18% nickel and 17% zinc
20
Grating-Stabilized ECDL design is shown in Appendix A.
To setup the laser for a proper operation, rst we put laser diode inside the collimation
tube. Make sure the temperature controller and laser diode connection to the current controller
is right. If we increase the input current, a beam of light will appear. Now we can put the lens
inside the collimation tube to collimate the laser light, make sure the diameter of laser beam
at a distance far away from the laser box is the same everywhere. After we achieved collimated
light, we can adjust the grating position such that in a lasing state is achieved. This can be
done by setting the diode current slightly below the free running threshold of the diode and
then adjust the angular position as well as vertical and horizontal micrometer screws until there
is a sudden increase in the output intensity meaning that the lasing state is achieved. Make
sure that polarization direction of the laser is also in the right direction, i.e. the laser must be
linearly polarized parallel to the wider side of the metal casing.
3.1.2 Saturation Spectroscopy Setup
Saturation Spectroscopy (or also known as Doppler-Free Spectroscopy) is a very well known
spectroscopy technique used to narrow the bandwidth of the laser output. In our experiment,
we use 780 nm laser and the saturation spectroscopy as the main stabilization reference of the
whole system.
Saturation Spectroscopy is based on a physical phenomenon known as Doppler broadening.
It is known that atom and molecules undergo random motion due to its thermal energy, which
then yields dierent velocity in dierent direction. When a beam of light passes through those
atoms, some atoms will be blue-shifted, and some other will be red-shifted, depending on the
direction of their velocities. Frequency change due to doppler eect is given by
v
s
= v
0
_
1 +
V
c
_
(3.1)
Blue-shift appears when the atom is approaching the laser V < 0, and red-shift appear when
the atom is moving away from the laser V > 0.
According to Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution, probability to nd atom with velocity be-
tween V and V +dV is
P(V )dV =
_
M
2kT
exp
_

MV
2
2kT
_
dV (3.2)
21
where T is the absolute temperature, M is the mass of the atom and k is boltzmann constant.
From these two equations above, we can obtain the probability of a photon with frequency
between v
s
and v
s
+dv
s
as follow
P(v
s
)dv
s
=
c
v
0
_
M
2kT
exp
_

(v
s
v
0
)
2
v
2
0
Mc
2
2kT
_
dv
s
=
2

exp
_

4(v
s
v
0
)
2

2
_
dv
s
where = 2
v0
c
_
2kT
M
is the linewidth parameter. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of
the Doppler Broadened line is
v
FWHM
=

ln 2 = 2
v
0
c
_
2kT ln 2
M
(3.3)
Figure 3.4: (a) Atoms move in dierent direction give rise to doppler broadening. (b) Broadening
of the frequency spectrum.
In room temperature 297 K at center wavelength 780 nm (frequency 3.8410
14
Hz), Doppler
broadening will have FWHM more than 250 MHz, which is too broad for our spectroscopy.
Therefore, a method called Doppler-free saturated absorption spectroscopy was developed to
reduce the doppler eects.
Suppose we have a gasseous sample with N(V )dV as a quantity that represent number of
atoms in the ground state with velocity between V and V + dV . When a laser beam with
frequency v
o
passes this gas, it will excite atoms at V = 0 which is at rest relative to the laser
22
to make transition to the excited state. Thus this will cause depopulation or hole burning of
atom population at v = 0. If the laser has frequency v > v
o
, it will excite the blue-shifted atoms
or atoms at V < 0 and create a hole burning in that area. Similarly, if the laser has frequency
v < v
o
, it will excite the red-shifted atoms which are those at V > 0.
Figure 3.5: Distribution of atoms in ground state (a) before laser absorption and (b) after laser
absoption.
Doppler-free saturated absoption spectoscopy make use of two laser beam which are counter-
propagated and overlap with each other. One is called pump beam, another one is called probe
beam, in which pump beam has more intensity than the probe beam. These two beams are
originated from the same source to ensure both have the same frequency.
Suppose we have a pump beam with frequency v > v
o
. It would burn hole in V < 0 group
of atoms, however this hole burning will be much less stronger than the hole burning created
by the probe beam in the V > 0 group of atoms. When pump beam (and probe beam) has
frequency v = v
o
, both will create a huge hole burning in the group of atom at V = 0. Pump
beam with higher intensity will increase depopulation of atom at V = 0 such that there will
be very few atom left there. Finally it will reach saturation where the laser has excited most
of the atom such that the probe beam can easily pas the gaseous sample without absoption.
This hole burning is called lamb dip. Lamb dip can be several order of magnitude smaller than
the Doppler-broadened spectral feature. the width lamb dip is given by v =

2
which is the
natural width of a transition.
23
Figure 3.6: Doppler-free saturation spectroscopy setup.
Figure 3.7 describes the setup of our Doppler free saturated absorption spectroscopy. We have
gaseous tube containing Rb atoms vapor (Thorlabs CP25075-RB - Rubidium [Rb]), polarizing
beam splitter (PBS, Thorlabs PBS052), quarter wave plate (QWP, WPQ05M-780) for 780 nm
laser, neutral density lters (NDF, Thorlabs NE03B-B ), a mirror, a spherical f = 15mm lens
and a photodiode (BPX65-100R). Input light with polarisation parallel to the ground is coming
to the setup and is used as the pump beam. This light will then pass through the PBS without
change of polarization direction, passing through the tube to create hole burning and goes out
to the NDF and QWP twice to lower down the intensity as well as rotating the polarization
direction by 90
o
and come back to the tube as the probe beam. Finally the beam will be reected
towards the lens by the PBS to be focused to the photodiode.
3.1.3 Final Setup of 780 nm Laser Stabilization
Once we have an operating laser box and Doppler-free saturation spectroscopy setup, we can
combine them to achieve a much narrower bandwidth of the nal 780 nm laser output.
First, the output light with frequency from the laser box is both reected and transmitted
by a PBS. the reected one goes to Double-pass Acoustic Optical Modulator (AOM) system,
whereas the transmitted one goes to the experiment. The double-pass AOM system modulated
the light at radio frequency
RF
such that the output light will be +2
RF
. This light then goes
to the Doppler-free saturation spectroscopy section to be locked at 5
2
S
1/2
5
2
P
3/2
transition
of Rubidium atom to achieve a much narrower bandwidth. The light that is detected by the
photodiode will be mixed with radio frequency RF (
RF
) signal in a locking amplier system,
and then to a Proportional-Integral controller (PI controller) as a servo. PI Controller has an
24
output to the piezoelectric transducer (PZT) to control the position of the grating such that it
will adjust itself to the correct position where the lasing at 780 nm is achieved.
Figure 3.7: Design of 780 nm Laser Stabilization Setup
3.2 Cavity Stabilization
3.2.1 The Cavity
In our experiment we use a plano mirror and a concave mirror coaxially aligned and separated
by certain distance L to simulate a cavity. The plano mirror used is Photonik 700-1150nm
Broadband Dielectric Mirror PBB-R03-10 with the following detailed properties:
Properties Details
Material Fused Silica
Thickness 6.0 mm (0.2 mm)
Diameter 25.4 mm (0.1 mm)
Flatness Lambda/10
Surface Quality 10-5 S/D
Front Surface R>99.5% for S and P polarization
Back Surface Fine Polished, uncoated
Clear Aperture >90% of diameter
Laser damage threshold 2 kW/cm
2
CW, 100 mJ/cm
2
10 ns pulse
Table 3.1: Plano mirror properties
25
Figure 3.8: Wavelength range of the plano mirror. Red and Blue line represent the 45
o
and 0
o
angle of incidence, respectively. (Image Courtesy of Photonik Singapore Pte Ltd)
The concave mirror that we use is Photonik 400-900nm Broadband Concave Mirror CVMB-
R10-350 with following detailed properties:
Properties Details
Material Fused Silica (VIOSIL, Japan)
Diameter 25.4 0.2 mm
Radius of Curvature (ROC) 350 0.1 mm
Focal Length 175.0 mm
Edge Thickness 5.5 0.1 mm
Flatness Lambda/4 @633 nm over 1 inch area
Surface Quality (Aft coating) 20-10 S/D
Front Surface R?99% for S and P polarization
Back Surface Fine Polished
Clear Aperture >90% of Diameter
Laser Damage Threshold 2kW/cm
2
CW, 100 mJ/cm
2
10 ns pulse
Table 3.2: Concave mirror properties.
Figure 3.9: Wavelength response of the concave mirror CVMB-R10-350 (Image Courtesy of
Photonik Singapore Pte Ltd)
26
The plano mirror is held in a mirror mount (KS1 - 1" Precision Kinematic Mirror Mount,
3 Adjusters) and the concave mirror is glued to a piezoelectric ring which is also attached to a
mirror mount (Thorlabs KS05 - 1/2" Precision Kinematic Mirror Mount, 3 Adjusters). We
chose a 0.5 mirror mount because the piezoelectric ring diamater is just slightly bigger than
0.5 so it will be more convenient to be glued to the optical mount. These two optical mounts
are connected together by a 40 cm metal rod made of stainless-steel (with coecient of thermal
expansion 17.3 10
6
K
1
) to keep the distance constant. Since this is a plano-concave mirror,
we set the length of the cavity the same as the radius of curvature of the concave mirror. One
side of each of the mirrors is dielectrically coated, and this coated surface is positioned face-to-
face inside the cavity. The cavity holders are screwed on an optical table in our lab to minimize
any disturbance coming from ground vibration.
Figure 3.10: Plano-concave cavity conguration. Note that the length of the cavity L is equal
to the radius of curvature r
c
of the concave mirror.
Properties of the cavity were observed by the following procedure. A laser beam from the
ECDL is directed to a polarizing beam splitter and a quarter-wave plate before being focused
by aspherical lens (f = 20 cm) to the plano mirror.
Figure 3.11: In this measurement, the ECDL operates at 79.47 mA and temperature23
o
C. The
resistance value in the temperature controller can easily be converted to temperature unit using
a simple formula in this Combi Controllers manual book.
27
The laser beam will be reected and transmitted back and forth in the cavity such that the
total reection is propagating back to the lens and the quarter-wave plate before being reected
to the photodiode by the polarizing beam splitter.
During this process, the length of the cavity is changed by giving oscillating signal to the
piezoelectric ring. We use function generator to create this signal. The waveform is triangle,
with amplitude 4 V , frequency 500 Hz and DC Oset 7%. Triangular wave was chosen because
we want to scan the length of the cavity linearly with time.
Figure 3.12: Piezoelectric ring (green-coloured) oscillates the mirror. While scaning in its
amplitude range, at some points the mirror will exactly at the resonant state of the cavity. This
resonant was observed as a series of peak in the oscilloscope (See Figure 3.15)
The signal from the function generator is connected to Channel 1 of an analog oscilloscope
and signal from photodiode is connected to Channel 2. The oscilloscope was triggered externally
to the function generator.
Figure 3.13: Cavity test setup
28
Figure 3.14: Function generator in operation. Triangular waves of frequency 500 Hz, amplitude
4 V and DC Oset -7% were given to the piezoelectric ring.
Figure 3.15: Photograph of what we obtain from this cavity test setup. The upper signal is
coming from Channel 1, which is the triangle wave given to the piezo and Channel 2 is the signal
from photodiode. Channel 2 was inverted because it is more convenient to see the resonant states
indicated as peaks.
Piezoelectric ring (model: Piezomechanik HPSt 150/14-10/25) has length-voltage response
approximately = 0.17 m/V . In this experiment, the oscilloscope is working in 2 V voltage
dierence interval and 0.2 ms time dierence interval. Thus we can observe from the graph in
Figure 3.15 that the voltage dierence V between two consecutive peaks is 2 0.5 V (0.5 V
were just rough estimation), meaning that the distance travelled by the mirror from one peak
to another is x = V = 0.32 0.09 m.
x is in fact the distance between two positions where wavelength 780 nm is in resonant state
29
inside the cavity, and that two consecutive resonant states could possibly occur if the length of
the cavity is moved by half of the central wavelength magnitude, i.e. 780 nm/2 = 390 nm. This
value is in the range of x(= 0.320.09m) from our measurement. The error of measurement
may come from the rough estimation of V and slight misalignment of the optical equipments
The height of the peak was measured from the graph and it was 4 mV . This could be
higher if the all the equipments were perfectly aligned and the laser and cavity were perfectly
mode-macthed.
3.2.2 Other Components for Cavity Stabilization
Electro-Optic Modulator (EOM)
Common application of the Electro-Optic Modulator (EOM) is to give sidebands to the monochro-
matic laser beam that passes through it. The working principle of an EOM is based on a
phenomenon known as Electro-Optic eect, which is a change in the optical properties (i.e. re-
fractive index of the material inside our EOM) in response to an electric eld that varies slowly
compared with the frequency of laser.
Suppose the refractive index n to be a function of the applied electric eld n = n(E). If we
expand it in terms of E, we have n = n
o
+
1
E +
2
E
2
+... where and
2
are the rst order
and second-order electro-optic eect coecients. Higher order coecients are usually small and
negligible in practical magnitude of applied eletcric elds therefore we can approximate it to
n n
o
+E. For laser beam that propagates in z direction, response towards electrid eld at
x and y axis may dier and this creates birefringence.
Figure 3.16: (top) Electro Optic Modulator, (bottom) typical EOM Driver Circuit use CRT
Driver to amplify the oscillationg signal from function generator
30
Our EOM (LM0202P 0.10W) were expected to be driven by EOM Driver that operates at
certain frequency
m
. The EOM driver obtains signal input reference from a function generator
and amplies the signal using CRT Driver (LM2432 220V Monolithic Single Channel 37 MHz
HDTV) as depicted in Figure 3.16 (bottom). If the EOM were operated at frequency
m
, the
refractive index would also change at the same rate, and therefore it produced sideband with
frequency
m
.
Photodetector
Photodetector or photodiode that we use in out experiment is the ultra high speed photodiode
BPX65-100R. The rise and fall time of the photocurrent for this type of photodiode is 12 ns.
Figure 3.17: Photodiode used in our experiment.
Photodiode has a PIN structure, in which a layer of intrinsic I material is positioned in
between a layer of p-type P material and a layer of n-type N material. When photodiode receive
a photon with sucient energy, photoelectric eect occurs, thereby creating a free electron and a
hole. If this happen at junction depletion region, the electron and hole are swept away (electrons
move toward the cathode, and holes move toward the anode) from the junction by the electric
eld in the depletion region, and photocurrent is generated.
Frequency Mixer and Low-Pass Filter
Just like its name, a mixer is basically used to combine two input signals. The output from the
mixer is a product of the input signal. Suppose that the input signal from the experiment is
V
E
= V
1
sin(
E
t +
E
) and there is also signal from local oscillator V
L
= V
2
sin(
L
t +
L
). The
mixer will produce the product of these signal which is
V
E
V
L
= V
1
V
2
sin(
E
t +
E
) sin(
L
t +
L
)
V
E
V
L
= V
1
V
2
_
1
2
cos((
E

L
)t +
E

L
)
1
2
cos((
E
+
L
)t +
E
+
L
)
_
31
This output signal will then goes to a low-pass lter to cancel the high frequency term (
E
+

L
). The maximize the output from the low frequency term,
E

L
is set to zero. Here, the
nal output of mixer and low-pass lter will be a DC oset. This is quite important in our
experiment since we are going to cancel the noise and will only extract certain frequency for
feedback signal to the laser.
E
=
L
is required for a stable DC oset, the resulting signal
would then be
V
E
V
L
=
1
2
V
1
V
2
cos(
E

L
) (3.4)
The magnitude of the output depends on the phase dierence between those two signals. Max-
imum output is achieved when
E

L
= 0.
PI Controller
PI controller is used to correct the error between a measured process variable (PV) and the
desired set-point (SP). The output from PI controller will then aect the manipulated variable
(MV). For this cavity stabilization, for example, the voltage measure by photodiode is the process
variable, the 780 nm laser frequency cavity resonant state is the set-point , and the position of
piezoelectic-ring is the manipualted variable. The schematic diagram of the PI controller can
be found in Appendix B
Piezoelectric Ring
As mentioned in section 3.2.1, we use piezoelectric ring model Piezomechanik HPSt 150/14-10/25
in our experiment. Piezoelectric ring basically works by adjusting its length for a given voltage
dierence. When an oscillating signal is given, the length of piezoelectric ring will oscillates in
the same frequency.
Figure 3.18: Piezoelectric ring in our experiment.
32
3.2.3 Final Setup of Cavity Stabilization
Figure 3.19: Cavity Stabilization Setup
The idea behind Pound Drever Hall technique is to have a cavity reference with constant length
to be used as reference for stabilization of 960 nm laser. In reality, constant length or stable
cavity is really hard to achieve. The length of the cavity may easily vary due to several things,
such as slight thermal expansion of the metal rod that connect the mirrors, or any other external
vibration. The idea behind this section is to lock the cavity length using the stable 780 nm laser
as the reference.
Figure 3.16 shows the setup design of cavity stabilization. Laser beam E = E
o
e
it
with
frequency and small bandwidth coming out from the section A. When passing through the
EOM the frequency of the beam will be modulated by frequency
m
so the electric eld of the
laser will be
E = E
o
e
i(t+ sin mt)
where is the modulation index. This modulation frequency is coming from a local oscillator
(function generator).
The laser will then going through multiple transmission and reection in the cavity. The
intensity of light that are reected back from the cavity and detected by the photodiode is
described as follow
P
ref
= P
c
|R()|
2
+P
s
|R( +
m
)|
2
+P
s
|R(
m
)|
2
+2
_
P
c
P
s
({R()R ( +
m
) R ()R(
m
)} cos
m
t
+{R()R ( +
m
) R ()R(
m
)} sin
m
t) + (2
m
terms)
33
R() is the reection coecient of the light at frequency , while P
c
and P
s
are constants that
represent power brought by center frequency and sideband frequency, respectively. Note that
2
m
terms is relatively very small, so we can neglect them. In a simpler way, we can write down
above equation into
P
ref
= A+B({C} cos
m
t +{C} sin
m
t)
This signal is then mixed with signal from local oscilator (sin
m
t) to extract the error signal
which is
= B{C}
where C = R()R ( +
m
) R ()R(
m
). Figure 3.17 describe the shape of the error
signal as function of
Figure 3.20: As mentioned previously at section 2.3, the error signal from PDH techniques has
this kind of shape. It has a very steep slope at zero crossing. The critical point, or the ending
of these two slopes, found out to be at v/2 and v/2 where v is the cavity linewidth. In
our experiment the cavity linewidth is expected to be around 250 450 Hz.
With a very steep slope at zero crossing, the PI Controller as the servo will easily recognize
even a very small deection from the resonant frequency v
o
and therefore can give corresponding
adjustment to move the piezoelectric ring back to the correct value where resonant occurs in
the cavity. Using this method, we can give a feedback system to the cavity such that it would
be able to have a constant or stable length to keep it in resonant state.
Furthermore, the steeper the slope, the better the system performance would be. While the
linewidth of the cavity cannot simply be minimized, it is possible to optimize to modulation
34
index to get maximal value of

P
c
P
s
, which is proportional to the error signal. Dependence of

P
c
P
s
to the modulation index was previouly calculated in other thesis [9] and it was found
that the maximum happens when = 1.08, where

P
c
P
s
= 0.42.
3.2.4 Initial Design of the Cavity
At the initial stage of this project, we actually have planned to build a cavity which should be
more stable and more reliable than the one we used in our experiment. It consists of 4 metal
pieces of invar rod (Invar (FeNi36) is a nickel iron alloy, with a very low coecient of thermal
expansion 1.210
6
K
1
at temperature range 20100
o
C, which is better than stainless-steel)
to be used as material that keep the distance between the two mirrors. The mechanical design
of this cavity can be seen in Figure 3.21 below.
Figure 3.21: Dimension and components of the initial cavity design.
35
Figure 3.22: 3D model of the initinal cavity design
The mirrors will be held by 2 Removable Cage Plate (Thorlabs CP90F) which are attached
to the invar rods. This design will improve the performance of the cavity in terms of reducing
possibilities of cavity length uctuation caused by thermal expansion. The removable cage plate
also has some screws for ne alignment.
3.3 960 nm Laser Stabilization
Suppose we do not have gaseous sample of any atoms that has transition in wavelength of
960 nm, therefore we cannot do Doppler-free saturated emission spectroscopy for this laser.
However, once we have stable cavity, we can apply PDH Technique to the 960 nm laser to lock
its frequency.
3.3.1 Stabilization Setup
The basic principle of this setup is basically quite similar with our previous cavity stabilization,
except for this one, the error signal is fed back to the PZT of 960 nm laser.
36
Figure 3.23: Stabilization setup for 960 nm laser
Previously the cavity has been mode-matched with 780 nm laser and therefore L = n
780 nm
2
,
where n is an integer. To be able to perform stabilization for 960 laser, the cavity length has
to satisfy L = n

960 nm
2
, where n

is also an integer. Here, we can conclude that: in order

for this 960 nm laser stabilization to work, we have to set the length of the cavity such that its
value is the largest common multiple of 360 nm and 480 nm.
37
Chapter 4
Summary and Outlook
4.1 Overall Setup
In this report, the building of a 780 nm grating-stabilized ECDL has been explained in detail.
Doppler-free saturated absorption spectroscopy has also been presented as our method to stabi-
lize the 780 nm laser. The setup explained in section 3.1 is the reference for cavity stabilization
setup (section 3.2), where the error signal from the cavity is fed back to the piezoelectric ring
in one of the mirror so it will adjust the cavity back to the correct position. Error signal in this
setup basically has PDH error signal characteristic, in which the it has very steep crossing near
zero value. The slope of this steep crossing was found to be related to the cavity linewidth and
modulation index . Since cavity linewidth is not easily adjustable in our experiment therefore,
optimization of value is needed. It turns out that when = 1.08, the maximum steepness of
the slope can be achieved hence making the cavity performance better. Section 3.3 is discussing
about how to use the stable cavity to stabilize the 960 nm laser. The basic principle is again
similar with cavity stabilization, where we can use PDH error signal as the feedback. One im-
portant thing to note when we want to stabilize the 960 nm laser is that the length of the cavity
must be divisible by both
780
2
nm and
960
2
nm since we expect the cavity to support resonant
state of both wavelength.
To combine the design of cavity stabilization in section 3.2 and design of 960 nm laser
stabilization in section 3.3 we may put a non polarizing beam-splitter (Non-PBS) at the output
facet of both lasers (as shown in Figure 4.1) so that both wavelength overlaps one another.
38
Both wavelength would then undergo the same path through the EOM and cavity. A dichroic
mirror (Thorlabs DMLP900 1" Longpass Dichroic Mirror, 50% Trans./Re. at 900 nm) have
to be added to split both wavelength and let them be detected by two dierent photodiodes.
Signal detected by each photodiode would then used to stabilized the cavity and the 960 nm
laser accordingly.
Figure 4.1: Diagram of overall setup design. The grey part is the 780 nm laser stabilization
setup.
In this project, we were using two mirrors coaxially aligned one another and placed them in
two optical mounts supported by a 40 cm stainless-steel rod as our cavity. We observe that the
cavity and the laser are able to achieve resonant state, identied by the occurence of periodic
peaks in the oscilloscope as we oscillate the mirror position by applying triangular wave to the
39
piezoelectric ring. This peak occurs because when the length of the cavity is in resonant state
with the wavelength (780 nm) there will be no reection signal from the cavity. The signal
detected by photodiode was inverted in oscilloscope, and hence this spontaneous absence of
signal would appear as a peak.
4.2 Future Application of the Design
In future, this design can be used to lock not only 960 nm laser, but also other lasers with
any wavelength as long as the length of the cavity is exactly the largest common multiple of
360 nm and

2
nm.
To reduce the linewidth of the cavity, mirrors with better reection coeent can be used.
For R > 99%, a slight dierence in reection coecient may actually result huge dierence in
the cavity linewidth. Moreover, there are huge room of improvement for the mechanical support
design of the cavity. In the future, with better mechanical support, better alignment and better
optimization of the whole setup, this system is actually very convenient to be used in the lab to
lock laser at various wavelength with relatively narrow linewidth.
40
APPENDIX A
Design of the grating-stabilized ECDL
Figure 4.2: Diagram of Grating-stabilized ECDL Design [13], The design of our laser box is
inspired by design of L. Ricci et al. and C.J. Hawthron et al. : (A) Top View, (B) Side View.
41
Figure 4.3: Photograph of the ECDL box with the top and the side cover openned. The cable
connection on the top of the image are connecting the ECDL to the temperature controller,
current controller and PI Controller.
42
APPENDIX B
Proportional Integral (PI) Controller Circuit
Figure 4.4: PI Controller Circuit. It consist of series of Proportional-Intergral components and
a trangle/TTL signal source.
43
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