Frequency of a methane-stabilized helium-neon laser

Author

Whitford, Bradley G. ; Hanes, Garnet R.

Author_Institution

Nat. Res. Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ont., Canada

Volume

37

Issue

2

fYear

1988

fDate

6/1/1988 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

179

Lastpage

184

Abstract

A phase-locked laser frequency chain was used to measure the absolute frequency of a HeNe/CH₄ laser relative to the primary Cs standard, with measurement uncertainty less than ±1 part in 10¹². The frequency depends on laser parameters; a spread of 8.3×10^-11 was observed. This was attributed to the variation of Lamb dip asymmetry resulting from the gas-lens effect and the accompanying diffraction loss variation near resonance. Means of improving laser frequency reproducibility by reducing cavity diffraction loss variation were studied experimentally. The frequency obtained with a cavity exhibiting the smallest Lamb dip asymmetry was found to be 88 376 181 599.07±0.07 kHz

Keywords

frequency measurement; gas lasers; helium; laser frequency stability; laser variables measurement; neon; organic compounds; Cs; He-Ne; Lamb dip asymmetry; absolute frequency; cavity; diffraction loss variation; frequency measurement; gas-lens effect; laser frequency reproducibility; phase-locked laser frequency chain; resonance; Diffraction; Diodes; Frequency measurement; Gas lasers; Laboratories; Laser stability; Laser theory; Measurement standards; Measurement uncertainty; Phase measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9456

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/19.6048

Filename

6048