Frequency locking of laser diode using metallic vapor optogalvanic spectrum: Ui

The frequency of a AlGaAs diode laser has been locked to the 8118-cm(-1)(f(3)d(2)s(5)M(0)(7))-20,218-cm(-1) transition of UI at 826.20570 nm using the optogalvanic effect. A hollow cathode vapor generator has been utilized to produce a density of 10(12) atoms/cm(3) of uranium in vapor phase. The absolute frequency stability for a 10-min run was estimated to be better than 500 kHz P-P at an integration time of 1 s. This preliminary result shows that the rich optogalvanic spectrum of uranium can be efficiently used for the frequency-locking of semiconductor lasers.