Injection-locked diode laser current modulation for Pound-Drever-Hall frequency stabilization using transfer cavities

A phase-modulated RF current source is applied to an injection-locked diode laser operating at 780 nm. This produces tunable phase-modulated sidebands of the laser suitable for stabilizing the length of an optical transfer cavity using the Pound-Drever-Hall technique. The Pound-Drever-Hall signal is antisymmetric about the lock point, despite the presence of significant diode laser amplitude modulation. The stabilized optical transfer cavity is used to frequency stabilize a 776 nm external cavity diode laser. The stability and tunability of this transfer cavity locked laser is established by observation of the hyperfine components of the Rb-87 5P(3/2) - 5D(5/2) transition in a vapor cell. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America