Development of a wavelength-stabilized distributed Bragg reflector laser diode to the Cs-D2 line for field use in accurate geophysical measurements

Abstract

We have developed a wavelength-stabilized laser diode (LD) for geophysical measurement devices, which benefit from the uniformity of laser light. Regarding this purpose, a system that has such characteristics as low power consumption, sturdiness against mechanical disturbances, and a long life with long-term frequency stability is especially required. Therefore, we adopt as the light source a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) LD because it has various advantages concerning such properties. This paper describes the durable and compact wavelength-stabilized laser system. Since our DBR-LD oscillates at 852 nm, we selected the Cs-D2 line (6 2S1/2-6 2P3/2 transition) as a frequency reference to obtain a long-term stability in wavelength. Stabilization is performed by a feedback system using a modulation transfer (MT) method, which is a kind of Doppler-free saturated absorption spectroscopy, to acquire a saturated absorption signal with a high signal-to-noise ratio. Using this system, we could continuously lock the laser frequency to the hyperfine component of the Cs-D2 line for more than one week. By an Allan standard deviation measurement, the uncertainty of the stabilized laser frequency was found to be better than 1 x 10(-10) (<40 kHz) in a Gatetime region longer than 100 s.