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Single actuator alignment control for improved frequency stability of a cavity-based optical frequency reference
- Source :
- Applied Optics. 47:1239
- Publication Year :
- 2008
- Publisher :
- The Optical Society, 2008.
-
Abstract
- We demonstrate a method of controlling the alignment of a laser beam to a Fabry-Perot resonator through synchronous detection of the misalignment arising from modulating the orientation of a single beam-steering mirror. The horizontal and vertical tilt of the mirror are modulated in quadrature to drive a circular motion of the beam orientation. A corresponding modulation of the intensity of the optical field circulating in the cavity is measured at either the reflected or transmitted port and demodulated synchronously to derive two error signals to indicate the vertical and horizontal misalignment. These signals are fed back to the beam-steering mirror to suppress fluctuations below 30 Hz. This method avoids the complexity of monitoring off-axis cavity modes and is particularly effective in the case where unwanted pointing fluctuations are introduced by one or two elements in the optical setup. We have applied the technique to two Fabry-Perot resonators in use as precision frequency references, delivering a result of 10 dB suppression of alignment fluctuations at 1 Hz and an improvement in frequency stability by up to a factor of 4.
- Subjects :
- Physics
business.industry
Materials Science (miscellaneous)
Fast Fourier transform
Physics::Optics
Spectral density
Optical field
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Metrology
Resonator
Circular motion
Optics
Physics::Accelerator Physics
Business and International Management
Actuator
business
Fabry–Pérot interferometer
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15394522 and 00036935
- Volume :
- 47
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Applied Optics
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....cfbeca1d9d9d7039d3da4fb21c519007