Compact and inexpensive iodine-stabilized diode laser system with an output at 531 nm for gauge block interferometers

Abstract

A compact and inexpensive iodine-stabilized diode laser system with an output at 531nm has been applied to long gauge block measurements. Although the optical frequency of the output beam was widely modulated (modulation width of ∼22MHz), the coherence length and interference phase stability are sufficiently long and high, respectively, for the interferometric measurement of long gauge blocks of up to 1000mm in length. The effective uncertainty of laser frequency in the interferometric measurement was theoretically and experimentally confirmed to be less than 10−9.