Solid-state laser system for laser cooling of sodium

We demonstrate a frequency-stabilized, all-solid laser source at 589 nm with up to 800 mW output power. The laser relies on sum-frequency generation from two laser sources at 1064 nm and 1319 nm through a PPKTP crystal in a doubly resonant cavity. We obtain conversion efficiencies as high as 2 W/W² after careful optimization of the cavity parameters. The output wavelength is tunable over 60 GHz, which is sufficient to lock on the sodium D₂ line. The robustness, beam quality, spectral narrowness and tunability of our source make it an alternative to dye lasers for atomic physics experiments with sodium atoms.