Rubidium-stabilized diode laser for high-precision interferometer

An Rb-stabilized diode laser has been developed for use in a high-precision interferometer. The light source is a commercially available external-cavity tunable diode laser. The laser frequency is stabilized to a Doppler-free absorption line of Rb by the third-harmonic technique. The laser emits an output beam with a high power (more than 7 mW) and fast frequency modulation (10 kHz). The relative optical frequency uncertainty of 4.3×10 –10 is achieved for a 0.01-s averaging time.