SSS SOSANWSS_-_DS'- 2.6. IODINE AND STABLE ND:YAG LASERS 35 2.6 Iodine and stable Nd:YAG lasers 2.6.1 Iodine frequency grid Another excursion into the wonderful world of precision spectroscopy and stable lasers brings us to iodine stabilized lasers. Here we have compared two different laser systems in terms of stability and accuracy and find that iodine stabilized lasers are convenient and easy to handle secondary optical frequency standards in the 10~"? reproduceability range. Recent values obtained from other groups for the transitions under investigation have been confirmed and i partly improved. High resolution saturated absorption spectroscopy of molecular iodine hyperfine transi- tions delivers a convenient natural frequency grid in the range from the near infrared to the limit of the iodine molecule dissociation near 500 nm. The absence of an electrical dipole moment leading to extremely small perturbation by external electromagnetic fields [85, 86] as well as strong and relatively narrow natural linewidths of hyperfine ' structure (HFS) transitions make molecular iodine ideally suited as a secondary optical frequency standard where the ultimate of precision is not needed. More than 100 000 | Todine lines have been catalogued by Gerstenkorn and Lue by Fourier transform spee- troscopy [87], which, in spite of its versatility, does not resolve the Doppler broadened HFS transitions. In recent years different groups have carried out precise absolute fre- quency measurements of a number of iodine lines at 532 nm (88, 27], 540 nm, 778 nm [80], 633 nm [89, 90}. Although playing in another league as compared to the ion- trap experiments and despite the fact that f frequency chains as discussed in this text allow us to synthesize almost any optical frequency with unprecedented precision, iodine stabilized lasers are still widely used as simple and reliable wavelength standards. Up to now. practical length metrology is performed mainly by using the red line of the iodine stabilized He-Ne laser at \ = 633 nm with a relative standard uncertainty of 2.5 x 10-}? [90]. With the use of diode-pumped, frequency-doubled Nd:YAG lasers emitting at \ = 532 nm, it becomes possible to develop @ new optical secondary frequency standard in the green part of the visible spectrum. Compact in size, these lasers exhibit low intrinsic frequency and amplitude noise, high power levels and long expected life time. Moreover, within the tuning range of the doubled frequency at 532 um lie a number of iodine absorption lines which are strong and relatively narrow so that they can be used as reference lines and for the frequency stabilization of the laser. So far, iodine stabilized Nd:YAG lasers have demonstrated a remarkably low Allan standard deviation’, reaching the level of 5 x 10" at 1000 s [92]. This is already more than 2 orders of magnitude better than the iodine stabilized He-Ne systems at 633 nm [93]. These lasers can therefore possibly replace the low power He-Ne - or *The Allan variance or Allan standard deviation is often used to characterize frequency stability. It is given by 07 HDL, ae” where fi, are consecutive measurements with gatetime 7, fo is the mean frequency. More details can be found in Ref [91]36 CHAPTER. 2. OPTICAL FREQUENCY DIFFERENCES costly Art - laser in this spectral range. Presently, several groups are investigating a number of features of these laser systems, at Stanford University, the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA), Boulder, the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), Paris, the Institute of Laser Physics (ILP), Novosibirsk, including different methods of frequency stabilization {94, 95], measurements of hyperfine line separations or frequency intervals between absorption lines [96, 97, 92] and absolute optical frequency measurements [98, 99, 27]. As a result of these efforts, the Comité Consultatif des Longueurs (CCL) meeting in 1997 recommended the frequency of one particular component, the aio hyperfine structure (HFS) component of the R(56)32-0 ion, for the realization of the metre with a relative standard uncertainty of 7 x 2.6.2 Nd:YAG lasers In order to explore the potential of the Ip stabilized Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm as a secondary frequency standard a direct comparison of different laser systems is benefi- cial. Different independent measurements of the absolute frequency of the R(56)32-0 line will help to identify possible systematic errors. Here we present a frequency com- parison of two independent iodine stabilized frequency-doubled Nd:YAG lasers at 532 nm and an absolute frequency measurement of the laser frequencies locked to different HFS components of the R(56)32-0 and P(54)32-0 iodine absorption line. The abso- lute frequencies have again been determined using a phase-coherent frequency chain which links the Ip stabilized laser frequency to our CH,-stabilized He-Ne laser at 3.39 ym. This laser has been calibrated before the measurements against an atomic cesium fountain clock. Details are given in in appendix B. For the frequency measurements two independent laser systems were used, one set up at the Institute of Laser Physics (ILP), Novosibirsk, Russia, the other at the |e [Re Gene Figure 2.25: The PTB iodine spectrometer. See text for details.i 2.6. IODINE AND STABLE ND:YAG LASERS 37 Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig, Germany. Both lasers employ saturated absorption techniques for stabilizing the laser onto a selected hyper~ fine component in molecular iodine. ‘The PTB Nd:YAG laser system shown in Fig. 2.25 is based on model 142 of Lightwave Electronics Co.. Within the frequency tuning range of this laser two major iodine lines, R(57)32-0 and P(54)32-0, can be addressed. The PTB system uses two servo-loops to stabilize the laser frequency: a slow thermal and a fast piezo-mounted transducer (PZT) with bandwidths of approximately 10 Hz and 10 kHz, respectively. To lock the laser onto a selected Ip line the phase modulation method is employed [100]. The probe beam is modulated at 2.05 MHz by an electro optic modulator (EOM), the pump beam is frequency shifted by an acousto-optical modulator (AOM). The driving AOM RF power is chopped in order to cancel frequency offsets introduced by the Doppler background or residual amplitude modulation, using a lock-in detection scheme. The transmitted | probe beam signal is detected by a photodiode (PD) and mixed with the EOM RF | in a double balanced mixer (DBM). A detailed description of the set-up is given in [101]. The frequency stability of the laser has been analyzed at PTB by locking two identical systems to independent iodine cells and observing the beat frequency between them. The root Allan variance of the beat follows a 2 x 10-/VHer dependence for measurement times 7 < 100 sec and reaches a minimum value of 3 x 10“ at + = 100 with one surface spherical and dichroically coated to serve as resonator mirror and input mirror for the pumping beam. The crystal is mounted on a PZT for fast frequency control. The flat output mirror is also mounted on a PZT and used for probe frequency a=0.502) Diode Laser absorption cell Figure 2.26: The ILP iodine spectrometer.