Survey of atomic transitions for absolute frequency locking of lasers for lightwave systems

Author

Lucero, A.J. ; Chung, Y.C. ; Tkach, R.W.

Volume

3

Issue

5

fYear

1991

fDate

5/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

484

Lastpage

486

Abstract

The authors survey 26 excited-state transitions of argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), and neon (Ne) around 1.3 and 1.5 mu m. A 1200-lines-per-mm grating mounted on a piezoelectric translator forms the adjustable reflective element of an external cavity semiconductor laser, reducing the laser linewidth to <100 kHz, and affording tens of nanometers of tunability. The laser may be tuned continuously over a range of approximately 2 GHz between mode hops by scanning the cavity length with the piezoelectric translator. Single-frequency oscillation is verified by the 750 MHz confocal Fabry-Perot, and the wavelength is measured by a wavemeter.<>

Keywords

atomic excited states; inert gases; laser accessories; laser frequency stability; laser tuning; semiconductor junction lasers; 1.3 micron; 1.5 micron; 750 MHz; Ar; Kr; Ne; absolute frequency locking; adjustable reflective element; atomic transitions; cavity length; confocal Fabry-Perot; excited-state transitions; external cavity semiconductor laser; grating; laser frequency locking; laser linewidth; laser tuning; lightwave systems; mode hops; optogalvanic responses; piezoelectric translator; wavemeter; Argon; Atom lasers; Atomic beams; Frequency; Gratings; Laser excitation; Laser mode locking; Laser transitions; Laser tuning; Semiconductor lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.93887

Filename

93887