Operating a laser diode in an extended cavity which provides frequency-selective feedback is a very effective method of reducing the laser’s linewidth and improving its tunability. We have developed an extremely simple laser of this type, built from inexpensive commercial components with only a few minor modifications. A 780 nm laser built to this design has an output power of 80 mW, a linewidth of 350 kHz, and it has been continuously locked to a Doppler-free rubidium transition for several days.

1.
C. E.
Wieman
and
L.
Hollberg
,
Rev. Sci. Instrum.
62
,
1
(
1991
).
2.
P. Zoorabedian, in Tunable Lasers Handbook, edited by F. J. Duarte (Academic, London, 1995).
3.
M. W.
Flemming
and
A.
Mooradian
,
IEEE J. Quantum Electron.
17
,
44
(
1981
).
4.
R.
Wyatt
and
W. J.
Devlin
,
Electron. Lett.
19
,
110
(
1983
).
5.
M. G.
Boshier
,
D.
Berkeland
,
E. A.
Hinds
, and
V.
Sandoghdar
,
Opt. Commun.
85
,
355
(
1991
).
6.
K. B.
MacAdam
,
A.
Steinbach
, and
C.
Wieman
,
Am. J. Phys.
60
,
1098
(
1992
).
7.
L.
Ricci
,
M.
Weidemüller
,
T.
Esslinger
,
A.
Hemmerich
,
C.
Zimmermann
,
V.
Vuletic
,
W.
König
, and
T. W.
Hänsch
,
Opt. Commun.
117
,
541
(
1995
).
8.
Throughout this article we provide details of the commercial components which we have used, in order to assist the reader who wishes to duplicate our system. Components from other manufacturers may of course deliver similar or better performance.
9.
P.
McNicholl
and
H. J.
Metcalf
,
Appl. Opt.
24
,
2757
(
1985
).
10.
K. Gibble, Proceedings of the 1997 NASA/JPL Fundamental Physics in Microgravity Workshop, Santa Barbara, 7–9 May 1997.
This content is only available via PDF.
You do not currently have access to this content.