High power laser source for atom cooling based on reliable telecoms technology with all fibre frequency stabilisation

Thomas Legg; Mark Farries

doi:10.1117/12.2250799

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22 February 2017 High power laser source for atom cooling based on reliable telecoms technology with all fibre frequency stabilisation

Thomas Legg, Mark Farries

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Proceedings Volume 10085, Components and Packaging for Laser Systems III; 100850Q (2017) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2250799
Event: SPIE LASE, 2017, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Cold atom interferometers are emerging as important tools for metrology. Designed into gravimeters they can measure extremely small changes in the local gravitational field strength and be used for underground surveying to detect buried utilities, mineshafts and sinkholes prior to civil works. To create a cold atom interferometer narrow linewidth, frequency stabilised lasers are required to cool the atoms and to setup and measure the atom interferometer. These lasers are commonly either GaAs diodes, Ti Sapphire lasers or frequency doubled InGaAsP diodes and fibre lasers. The InGaAsP DFB lasers are attractive because they are very reliable, mass-produced, frequency controlled by injection current and simply amplified to high powers with fibre amplifiers. In this paper a laser system suitable for Rb atom cooling, based on a 1560nm DFB laser and erbium doped fibre amplifier, is described. The laser output is frequency doubled with fibre coupled periodically poled LiNbO3 to a wavelength of 780nm. The output power exceeds 1 W at 780nm. The laser is stabilised at 1560nm against a fibre Bragg resonator that is passively temperature compensated. Frequency tuning over a range of 1 GHz is achieved by locking the laser to sidebands of the resonator that are generated by a phase modulator. This laser design is attractive for field deployable rugged systems because it uses all fibre coupled components with long term proven reliability.

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Thomas Legg and Mark Farries "High power laser source for atom cooling based on reliable telecoms technology with all fibre frequency stabilisation", Proc. SPIE 10085, Components and Packaging for Laser Systems III, 100850Q (22 February 2017); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2250799

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