Frequency stabilization of a diode-laser-pumped microchip Nd:YAG laser at 1.3 microm

We report the active frequency stabilization of a diode-pumped microchip Nd:YAG laser using a frequency-modulation sideband locking technique. The novel aspect of this scheme is that the piezo-mounted output coupler acts as both the frequency modulator and the frequency-correcting element. When the laser is locked to a reference cavity of 300-MHz free spectral range and 5-MHz linewidth, the laser frequency stability is found to be 88 kHz relative to the cavity.