Metastable Magnesium fluorescence spectroscopy using a frequency-stabilized 517 nm laser

We present a laser operating at 517 nm for our Magnesium laser-cooling and atomic clock project. A two-stage Yb-doped fiber amplifier (YDFA) system generates more than 1.5 W of 1034 nm light when seeded with a 15 mW diode laser. Using a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide, we obtained more than 40 mW of 517 nm output power by single pass frequency doubling. In addition, fluorescence spectroscopy of metastable magnesium atoms could be used to stabilize the 517 nm laser to an absolute frequency within 1 MHz.