An all-solid-state laser source at 671 nm for cold atom experiments with lithium

TL;DR

This paper introduces a high-power, narrow-linewidth, all-solid-state laser at 671 nm suitable for lithium atom cooling, featuring high efficiency, tunability, and a simplified design for practical applications.

Contribution

It reports a novel, robust laser source at 671 nm with high power, efficiency, and tunability, optimized for cold atom experiments with lithium.

Findings

Achieved 670 mW output power at 671 nm with 86% doubling efficiency.

Demonstrated tunability over 100 GHz.

Validated suitability for lithium atom laser cooling.

Abstract

We present an all solid-state narrow line-width laser source emitting $670\,\mathrm{mW}$ output power at $671\,\mathrm{nm}$ delivered in a diffraction-limited beam. The \linebreak source is based on a fre-quency-doubled diode-end-linebreak pumped ring laser operating on the ${^4F}_{3/2} \rightarrow {^4I}_{13/2}$ transition in Nd:YVO$_4$. By using periodically-poled po-tassium titanyl phosphate (ppKTP) in an external build-up cavity, doubling efficiencies of up to 86% are obtained. Tunability of the source over $100\,\rm GHz$ is accomplished. We demonstrate the suitability of this robust frequency-stabilized light source for laser cooling of lithium atoms. Finally a simplified design based on intra-cavity doubling is described and first results are presented.