Frequency stabilization of a 739 nm laser to an $I_2$ spectrum for trapped Ytterbium ions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the frequency stabilization of a 739 nm laser to an iodine transition, achieving high stability suitable for ytterbium ion experiments, by optimizing modulation transfer spectroscopy parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a method to lock a 739 nm laser to an iodine hyperfine transition with high stability, enabling precise control for ytterbium ion applications.

Findings

Achieved frequency stability of 3.83×10^{-11} at 13 s

Optimized locking by analyzing line broadening effects

Validated iodine transition as a reliable frequency reference

Abstract

We report on the frequency stabilization of a 739 nm Ti:sapphire laser to a hyperfine component of the $^{127}I_{2}$ B(1)-X(11) P(70) transition using acousto-optic modulation transfer spectroscopy (MTS). A frequency stability of $3.83\times 10^{-11}$ around 13 s averaging time is achieved when the laser frequency is stabilized. The observed hyperfine transition of the molecular iodine is an ideal frequency reference for locking the lasers used in experiments with trapped ytterbium ions, since its second harmonic frequency is the $^{2}S_{\frac{1}{2}}-^{2}P_{\frac{1}{2}}$ transition of the ytterbium ion at 369.5 nm. By investigating the line broadening effects due to the iodine vapor pressure and laser power, the locking is optimized to the theoretical signal to noise ratio (TSNR) of this iodine transition.