Sinusoidal frequency modulation on laser diode for frequency stabilization and displacement measurement

In this paper, we propose the sinusoidal frequency modulation on a laser diode (LD) to achieve both frequency stabilization of the LD and displacement measurement with a homodyne interferometer. The central frequency of the LD is stabilized to a Doppler broadened absorption line of iodine (I-2) molecule near the wavelength of 633 nm. The frequency of the LD is modulated across the absorption line and synchronous detection is utilized to detect the absorption signal. A simple and low-cost homodyne displacement-measuring interferometer can be constructed that can attain high measurement resolution. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.