Optical frequency determination of the hyperfine components of the 5S12-5D32 two-photon transitions in rubidium

Abstract An absolute optical frequency measurement is made of the hyperfine components of the 5S 1 2 -5D 3 2 two-photon transitions in rubidium with an uncertainty of 1.3×10-11. This is carried out in a simple way by taking advantage of the near coincidence between the two-photon frequency at λ=778 nm in Rb and the frequency difference of two HeNe lasers, stabilized respectively to an iodine line at λ=633 nm and a methane transition at λ=3.39 μm used as reference. This measurement provides a new optical frequency reference in the visible range.

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