Compact frequency-stabilization scheme for laser cooling of polar molecules

摘要

Laser cooling of polar molecules has made great progress in recent years. Due to the complicated energy levels with the vibrational and rotational states, more lasers are required compared with the laser cooling of atoms. The lack of vapor cell spectroscopy makes the frequency stabilization more complex. We have realized a versatile frequency-stabilization scheme to lock three lasers with one transfer cavity. The long-term drift due to the nonlinear response of the piezoelectric ceramics is carefully characterized. With the passive feedback of the environment of the cavity and zero-offset locking, the linewidth and long-term drift of the laser frequency is maintained to be less than 1 MHz, satisfying the stability required by the laser cooling experiment. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America.