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Updated: Apr 3, 2026

Construction and Characterization of External Cavity Diode Lasers for Atomic Physics
Published on: April 24, 2014
Diode laser operating on an atomic transition limited by an isotope ⁸⁷Rb Faraday filter at 780 nm
Abstract:
We demonstrate an extended cavity Faraday laser system using an antireflection-coated laser diode as the gain medium and the isotope (87)Rb Faraday anomalous dispersion optical filter (FADOF) as the frequency selective device. Using this method, the laser wavelength works stably at the highest transmission peak of the isotope (87)Rb FADOF over the laser diode current from 55 to 140 mA and the temperature from 15°C to 35°C. Neither the current nor the temperature of the laser diode has significant influence on the output frequency. Compared with previous extended cavity laser systems operating at frequencies irrelevant to spectacular atomic transition lines, the laser system realized here provides a stable laser source with the frequency operating on atomic transitions for many practical applications.

