Stabilized DFB laser system with large tuning range

Abstract

We propose, design, and realize a compact stabilized laser system that can be tuned within 24 GHz automatically. This laser system consists of two distributed feedback (DFB) lasers, one of which is reference and locked to the D2 line of Rb87, the other laser is a slave that is locked to the reference laser via a loop servo. We measured the frequency of the beating signal of the two lasers and generated an error signal, which controlled the frequency of the slave laser to close the loop. We compressed the fluctuation of the beating signal’s frequency to less than 1 MHz. Furthermore, the system can also automatically determine and control whether the slave is red detuned or blue detuned to the reference. The dimensions of our laser system are about 15 cm × 20 cm × 10 cm. This kind of laser system can be applied in many important applications, such as atomic interferometer and cold atomic clock.