title: Piezo-locking a diode laser with saturated absorption spectroscopy.
abstract: We demonstrate modulation-based frequency locking of an external cavity diode laser, utilizing a piezo-electrically actuated mirror, external to the laser cavity, to create an error signal from saturated absorption spectroscopy. With this method, a laser stabilized to a rubidium hyperfine transition has a FWHM of 130 kHz over seconds, making the locked laser suitable for experiments in atomic physics, such as creating and manipulating Bose-Einstein condensates. This technique combines the advantages of low-amplitude modulation, simplicity, performance, and price, factors that are usually considered to be mutually exclusive.
authors.affiliation: Australian Centre of Excellence for Quantum Atom Optics, Department of Physics, The Australian National University, Canberra, 0200, Australia. john.debs@anu.edu.au
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Debs
authors.forename: N P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Robins
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lance
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Kruger
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Close