Frequency stabilization of internal-mirror He-Ne lasers by air cooling

Instead of the traditional heating method, the cavity length of an internal-mirror He-Ne laser is controlled by air cooling which is implemented by a mini cooling fan. The responsive property of the cooling fan and the thermal expansion of the internal-mirror laser tube are investigated. According to these investigations, a controlling system is designed to drive the cooling fan controlling the cavity length of the laser. Then the frequency is stabilized by comparing the light intensities of two operating longitudinal modes. The results of beating with an iodine stabilized He-Ne laser show that a relative uncertainty (Δf/f-) of 4.3×10(-9) in 5 months, a frequency fluctuation of <1.4 MHz, and an Allan deviation of 6×10(-11) (τ=10,000 s) in 20 h are obtained.