A 5 MHz beat frequency He–Ne laser equipped with bireflectance cavity mirror

A He–Ne dual-frequency laser equipped with a bireflectance cavity mirror is described. It is based on the principle that when the incident light is perpendicular to the bireflectance cavity mirror, the phase delays of the reflective light along the mirror's fast and slow axes are different because of the photoelastic effect. The mode coupling is reduced by utilizing transverse Zeeman effect so that two linear and orthogonal polarization components with 5 MHz beat frequency are generated. The effect of the magnetic field's direction on the dual-frequency as well as the polarization property of the laser are investigated by experiments. After stabilizing the frequency, the laser is calibrated with the iodine frequency stabilization laser of Chinese National Institute of Metrology (CNIM). Experimental results indicate that the expanded uncertainty of wavelength in vacuum is 1×10⁻⁷ (k=3) with a frequency stabilization of 6.6×10⁻¹⁰ (sampled in 1000 s).     

Precise force measurement over 6 decades applying the resonator-internal photoelastic effect

Mechanical forces can be measured over a range of 6 decades by applying the photoelastic effect inside the laser cavity. Our experiments with a modular test setup (633nm) demonstrate proportional force-to-frequency conversion from 1·10^–4N up to 80N with the noise equivalent resolution of 3·10^–5N. The frequency response of our test setup was established from dc up to some kilohertz. Measurement range and resolution can be extended to 10^–6N or smaller values by applying improved laser stabilization and miniaturizing cavity length and size of photoelastic material. The upper limit of the scale factor is calculated to be of the order of 25MHz/N.     

Fast, low-noise, mode-by-mode, cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy by diode-laser self-locking

A new technique of cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy is described. Molecular absorption spectra are obtained by recording the transmission maxima of the successive TEM_oo resonances of a high-finesse optical cavity when a Distributed Feedback Diode Laser is tuned across them. A noisy cavity output is usually observed in such a measurement since the resonances are spectrally narrower than the laser. We show that a folded (V-shaped) cavity can be used to obtain selective optical feedback from the intracavity field which builds up at resonance. This induces laser linewidth reduction and frequency locking. The linewidth narrowing eliminates the noisy cavity output, and allows measuring the maximum mode transmissions accurately. The frequency locking permits the laser to scan stepwise through the successive cavity modes. Frequency tuning is thus tightly optimized for cavity mode injection. Our setup for this technique of Optical-Feedback Cavity-Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (OF-CEAS) includes a 50 cm folded cavity with finesse ∼20 000 (ringdown time ∼20 μs) and allows recording spectra of up to 200 cavity modes (2 cm⁻¹) using 100 ms laser scans. We obtain a noise equivalent absorption coefficient of ∼5×10⁻¹⁰ cm⁻¹ for 1 s averaging over scans, with a dynamic range of four orders of magnitude.     

微片Ｎｄ∶ＹＡＧ 双频激光器腔调谐现象研究

 基于微片Ｎｄ∶ＹＡＧ 正交偏振双频激光器,研究了若干重要的双频激光器腔调谐现象, 包括光强调谐、频差调谐、子谐振腔效应及频差闭锁等,给出了实验结果和数据。腔调谐下,正交双频的频差调谐量约为３５０ ｋＨｚ;存在子谐振腔效应时,频差调谐量最大可达到２ ＭＨｚ;未发现明显频差闭锁现象,频差最小值可达到１４ ＭＨｚ。     

Study of Hard-sealed,Tunable,Photoelastic Birefringent Dual-frequency Lasers

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A novel active optical approach for acceleration measurement based on a Y-shaped cavity dual-frequency laser

A novel active optical approach for acceleration measurement based on a Y-shaped cavity dual-frequency laser is presented and demonstrated. Applied acceleration causes a change in the refractivity of sensing gas in one of the two cavities, resulting in a beat frequency variation between two orthogonal polarized lights. As a result, this approach produces a modulation of beat frequency strictly proportional to the input acceleration. Preliminary experiments with a 632.8 nm Y-shaped cavity He–Ne dual-frequency laser confirm the validity of the laser sensor. The experimental results show that the laser sensor in this approach characterizes a nearly linear response to the input acceleration, which is a projection of gravitational acceleration. The experimental values of the scale factors are mostly in good agreement with theoretical ones. By optimizing the optical and geometrical parameters of the laser sensor, an acceleration measurement resolution of 10^?5–10^?6 gravitational acceleration (within ±5 g measurement range) could be expected. Furthermore, we investigate the principle about the sign of the scale factor in detail, and propose a simple but efficient method to distinguish the direction of the acceleration acted on the laser sensor.     

Intra-cavity spectroscopy with diode lasers

A multi-mode diode laser with an external cavity is studied experimentally and theoretically for its application to intra-cavity spectroscopy. One facet of a typical Ga_0.89Al_0.11As laser diode was antireflection-coated by deposition of HfO₂ such that 10^–3 residual reflectivity was left over. This diode was placed in an external optical cavity. The emission spectrum of this diode laser is highly sensitive to any frequency-dependent loss in the cavity, and the detectivity of such a loss grows with the pump rate. Even close to threshold, the absorption at 780 nm of Rb atoms with a density of 5×10¹⁰ cm^–3 has been detected. An adequate model for diode lasers based on rate equations and including frequency-dependent gain saturation is developed and applied to the calculations of output spectra. The sensitivity of these spectra to intra-cavity absorption is determined by the overall cavity loss — which is rather high — and the fraction of spontaneous emission in the total emission, in contrast with dye lasers where it is limited by nonlinear mode coupling. Various criteria for the sensitivity are suggested. The smallest detectable absorption with a perfectly antireflection-coated laser is 10^–6 cm^–1. Improvement of the characteristics of the laser diode would increase the sensitivity.     

Frequency stabilization and measurements of 543 nm HeNe lasers

In this paper we report our investigations on the frequency stabilization and frequency measurements of 543 nm HeNe laser. It contains following four different works. (1) Using a metal laser tube we have built an iodine-stabilized 543 nm HeNe laser by the Frequency-Modulation (FM) spectroscopy. The signal-to-noise ratio of the hyperfine spectrum reached 2 × 10^–12 at 1 s sampling time. (2) We have built a compact iodine-stabilized 543 nm HeNe laser system using the third-harmonic locking technique. Stability better than 1 × 10^–12 for sampling time >1 s is obtained. We also suggest the b₁₀ line for the future recommendation. (3) We constructed the Lamb-dip stabilized He-²⁰Ne and He-²²Ne lasers and measured their frequency stability, reproducibility, and absolute frequencies. The results suggest that the Lamb-dip stabilized lasers are appropriate for secondary wavelength standards. We have also deduced the isotope shift of Ne atom at 543 nm. (4) We have developed two two-mode stabilized 543 nm HeNe lasers using the bang-bang control method. The Allan variance is 1 × 10^–11 at 1 s sampling time.     

Development of injection-seeded, pulsed optical parametric generator/oscillator systems for high-resolution spectroscopy

We report the development and application of pulsed optical parametric generator (OPG) and optical parametric oscillator (OPO) systems that are injection seeded with near-infrared distributed feedback diode lasers. The OPG is injection seeded at the idler wavelength without the use of a resonant cavity. Two counter-rotating, beta-barium-borate (β-BBO) crystals are used in the OPG. These crystals are pumped by the third harmonic, 355-nm output of an injection-seeded Nd:YAG laser. An OPO version of the system has also been developed by placing two flat mirrors around the two β-BBO crystals to form a feedback cavity at the signal wavelength. The OPO cavity length is not actively controlled. The output signal beam from the OPG or OPO is amplified using an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) stage with four β-BBO crystals. The frequency bandwidths of the signal and idler laser radiation from OPG/OPA and OPO/OPA systems have been determined to be slightly greater than 200 MHz. The temporal pulses from each system are smooth and near-Gaussian. High-resolution optical absorption measurements of acetylene (C₂H₂) were performed as another check of the frequency spectrum of the idler beam. The frequency-doubled signal output of the OPO/OPA system was used to perform high-resolution, single-photon, laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopic studies of the (0,0) vibrational band of the A ²Σ⁺−X ²Π electronic transition of nitric oxide (NO) at low pressure. Excellent agreement was obtained between the theory and the experiment. The signal output of the OPG/OPA system was also used for sub-Doppler, two-photon LIF spectroscopic studies of the same vibration–rotation manifold of NO.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Principles and realization of a novel instrument for high performance displacement measurement—nanometer laser ruler

This paper introduces a novel instrument for displacement measurement—a nanometer laser ruler, in which some special concepts of laser physics are utilized, such as orthogonal polarization of laser modes, mode competition, power tuning and the law that changes of λ/2 in cavity length means the variation of one longitudinal mode spacing in frequency. Besides having a simple structure, the ruler has high resolution (79 nm), large measuring range (12 mm), and excellent linearity (5×10⁻⁵). The laser is the ruler itself. It can be applied to various fields. The way to implement the ruler is also introduced. In the end, some errors of the ruler are discussed.     

Eye-protection glasses against YAG laser injury based on the band gap reflection of one-dimensional photonic crystal

Eye-protection glasses against YAG laser injury based on band gap reflection of one-dimensional photonic crystal (PC) is designed and manufactured in this paper. The laser beam (wavelength 1.06 μm) is reflected by the one-dimensional PC (with the transmission 10⁻⁷) and absorbed by the phosphatic glass substrate (with the transmission 1% for 1.06 μm), so the transmission of the device for wavelengths of1.06 μm can reach 10⁻⁹. The glasses have enough capabilities to protect the eyes from injury of ns-YAG lasers whose energy density is 1 J/cm² for all incident angles, and also to avoid a second injury to others from the reflected laser beams. The transmission of the glasses is beyond 70% for the visible lights. The testing data of the eye-protection glasses agree well with the theoretical predictions.     

Dual-frequency Brillouin fiber laser for optical generation of tunable low-noise radio frequency/microwave frequency

We demonstrate a new approach, i.e., a cw dual-frequency Brillouin fiber laser pumped by two independent single-frequency Er-doped fiber lasers, for the generation of tunable low-noise rf/microwave optical signals. Its inherent features of both linewidth narrowing effect in a Brillouin fiber cavity and common mode noise cancellation between two laser modes sharing a common cavity allow us to achieve high frequency stability without using a supercavity. Beat frequency of the dual-frequency Brillouin fiber laser can be tuned from tens of megahertz up to 100 GHz by thermally tuning the wavelengths of the two pump lasers with tuning sensitivity of approximately 1.4 GHz/ degrees C. Allan variance measurements show the beat signals have the hertz-level frequency stability.     

Short-term frequency stabilization of diode-laser-pumped Nd:YAG lasers using double-pendulum suspended cavities

We describe the improvement of short-term frequency stability of diode-laser-pumped Nd:YAG lasers. To improve the vibrational isolation of reference cavities, the reference cavities were suspended by a double pendulum with magnetic damping. The frequency noise was reduced to lower than 1 Hz/Hz at Fourier frequencies higher than 5 Hz and the minimum noise of 7 × 10^–3 Hz/Hz was recorded. The minimum root Allan variance was about 10^–14 for the sampling time of 0.01 s. Heating of the reference cavity by absorbed laser power caused the thermal drift of cavity resonance frequencies. It resulted in the laser linewidth in the range of 30–50 Hz.     

Locking the frequency of lasers to an optical cavity at the 1.6×10−17 relative instability level

We stabilized the frequencies of two independent Nd:YAG lasers to two adjacent longitudinal modes of a high-finesse Fabry–Pérot resonator and obtained a beat frequency instability of 6.3 mHz at an integration time of 40 s. Referred to a single laser, this is 1.6×10^?17 relative to the laser frequency, and 1.3×10^?6 relative to the full width at half maximum of the cavity resonance. The amplitude spectrum of the beat signal had a FWHM of 7.8 mHz. This stable frequency locking is of importance for next-generation optical clock interrogation lasers and fundamental physics tests.     

A simple extended cavity diode laser for spectroscopy around 640 nm

We report on an extended cavity diode laser for operation near 640 nm. The laser is continuously tunable in 10 GHz ranges with a maximum output power of 3 mW. The laser system has been constructed using off-the-shelf optoelectronic components and easily machinable mechanical parts. The constructed system has been used to study the saturated absorption of the closed 1s₅–2p₉ neon transition in a radio-frequency discharge that can be maintained at neon pressures down to 10⁻² Pa.     

A high-temperature laser ion source for trace analysis and other applications

We report here on the development of a high-temperature laser ion source useful for trace analysis and other applications. It consists of a high temperature ionization chamber, three tunable dye lasers pumped by copper vapor lasers for stepwise resonant ionization and a Mattauch-Herzog mass spectrometer for the analysis of photo-ions. The principle of the laser ion source and its theoretical efficiency are discussed, where the efficiency of a laser ion source is the ratio of photo-ions extracted out to the number of atoms introduced into the cavity. Experimentally, an efficiency of 2×10^–3 has been achieved for technetium. The scheme of gated detection is described which is used for suppressing isobaric background of molybdenum. The possible improvements are briefly mentioned for achieving isotopic analysis of 10⁸ atoms of ^97,98Tc in the presence of 10¹⁵ atoms of molybdenum, as separated chemically from molybdenum ore. Such an analysis of technetium isotopes produced in molybdenite ore by a (v,e ^–) reaction, is expected to yield information about the solar neutrino flux.Permanent address: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay 400085, India     

Influence of Nonlinear Gain Saturation on the Time-Bandwidth Product of Optical Pulse from a Gain-Switched Semiconductor Laser

It is found numerically that the time-bandwidth product (TBP) of optical pulse from a gain-switched semiconductor laser operating under a sufficient gain saturation condition increases monotonously with increasing modulation amplitude. This enhancement of the TBP becomes remarkable for longer-wavelength semiconductor lasers (1.3, 1.55 μm) having large value of the gain compression factor ε (∼ 10⁻²³ m³), making the pulse chirp estimation using the TBP difficult.     

几种新型LD泵浦Nd∶YAG双频激光器

介绍了几种LD泵浦Nd∶YAG双频激光器 ,均应用双折射原理实现。一类是利用自然双折射效应 ,在激光谐振腔内加入自然双折射元件 ;另一类则是对YAG晶片加压力 ,使YAG晶片本身成为应力双折射元件。由于双折射效应使激光在谐振腔内产生偏振方向互相垂直的寻常光 (o光 )和非寻常光 (e光 )两种成分。因为o光和e光在双折射元件中有着不同的折射率 ,因此一个激光谐振腔变成了具有两个物理长度的谐振腔 ,从而产生双频激光。改变自然双折射元件或对YAG晶片施加的压力 ,可调谐频差。实验中获得 10 9Hz量级的大频差 ,合成波长可到几十毫米 ,适用于绝对距离干涉测量     

Improvements of optical power scale realization with a CCD-based laser stabilization system

This paper deals with improvements in the measurements of optical power by using CCD-based stabilization optics. Absolute optical power scale has been realized at discrete laser wavelengths of vertically polarized tuneable Ar⁺, fixed He–Ne and fixed Nd:YAG (with second harmonic) laser sources. Electrical-substitution cryogenic radiometer was operated at the helium temperature for this purpose. To make measurements on the metrological level the intensities of lasers were stabilized to better than 0.004% by using an established system. Using the highly collimated and stabilized lasers, whose beam shape and dimension were adjusted properly, leads us to measure the absolute optical powers with an uncertainty in the order of 10⁻⁴.     

Elementary reactions of formyl (HCO) radical studied by laser photolysis—transient absorption spectroscopy

Several elementary reactions of formyl radical of combustion importance were studied using pulsed laser photolysis coupled to transient UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy: HCO → H + CO (1), HCO + HCO → products (2), and HCO + CH₃ → products (3). One-pass UV absorption, multi-pass UV absorption as well as cavity ring-down spectroscopy in the red spectral region were used to monitor temporal profiles of HCO radical. Reaction (1) was studied over the buffer gas (He) pressure range 0.8–100 bar and the temperature range 498–769 K. Reactions (2a), (2b), (2c), (3a) and (3b) as well as the UV absorption spectrum of HCO, were studied at 298 and 588 K, and the buffer gas (He) pressure of 1 bar. Pulsed laser photolysis (308, 320, and 193 nm) of acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, and acetone was used to prepare mixtures of free radicals. The second-order rate constant of reaction (1) obtained from the data at 1 bar is: k₁(He) = (0.8 ± 0.4) × 10⁻¹⁰exp(−(66.0 ± 3.4) kJ mol⁻¹/RT) cm³ molecule⁻¹ s⁻¹. The HCO dissociation rate constants measured in this work are lower than those reported in the previous direct work. The difference is a factor of 2.2 at the highest temperature of the experiments and a factor of 3.5 at the low end. The experimental data indicate pressure dependence of the rate constant of dissociation of formyl radical 1, which was attributed to the early pressure fall-off expected based on the theory of isolated resonances. The UV absorption spectrum of HCO was revised. The maximum absorption cross-section of HCO is (7.3 ± 1.2) × 10⁻¹⁸ cm² molecule⁻¹ at 230 nm (temperature independent within the experimental error). The measured rate constants for reactions (2a), (2b), (2c), (3a) and (3b) are: k₂ = (3.6 ± 0.8) × 10⁻¹¹ cm³ molecule⁻¹ s⁻¹ (298 K); k₃ = (9.3 ± 2.3) × 10⁻¹¹ cm³ molecule⁻¹ s⁻¹(298 and 588 K).