Birefringent atomic vapor laser lock in a hollow cathode lamp

We report a robust method of stabilizing a laser to the frequency of an atomic transition using a hollow cathode lamp. In contrast to the standard dichroic atomic vapor laser lock method, which uses dichroism induced by a longitudinal magnetic field, we employ birefringence induced by a transversal magnetic field. We applied this method to the (5s(2)) S-1(0)- (5s5p) P-1(1), transition (461 nm) of Sr. Although the hollow cathode is made of ferromagnetic material, we successfully applied a magnetic field of sufficient strength to obtain an error signal with a theoretical maximum slope. This method may be applied to other hollow cathode lamps of different atomic species. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America

Automated summary

We present a robust method of stabilizing a laser to the frequency of an atomic transition using a hollow cathode lamp. Instead of the standard dichroic atomic vapor laser lock method, we utilize birefringence induced by a transversal magnetic field.