Tunable single-frequency operation of a diode-pumped vertical external-cavity laser at the cesium D2 line

We report on a diode-pumped vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser emitting around 852 nm for Cesium atomic clocks experiments. We have designed a 7-quantum-well semiconductor structure optimized for low laser threshold. An output power of 330 mW was achieved for 1.1 W of incident pump power. Furthermore, a compact setup was built for low-power single-frequency emission. We obtained an output power of 17 mW in a single longitudinal mode, exhibiting both broad (9 nm) and continuous (14 GHz) tunability around the Cesium D₂ line. The laser frequency has been stabilized on an atomic transition with residual frequency fluctuations ∼300 kHz. Through a beatnote experiment the −3 dB laser linewidth has been measured to <500 kHz over 10 ms.