Purity of iodine cells and optical frequency shift of iodine-stabilized He-Ne lasers

In this contribution we present an investigation of a set of short iodine cells designed to operate in the intracavity arrangement in iodine-stabilized Helium-Neon laser etalons. The cells were made over a longer period of time, their absolute optical frequencies were measured in international comparisons and their frequency shifts are compared here to independent measurement of iodine purity performed by measurement of induced fluorescence and evaluation by the Stern-Volmer formula. The manufacturing technology of the cells and the filling process is mentioned briefly and the arrangement for measurement of the induced fluorescence is described. The main goal of this effort is to recognize the limits of the absolute precision of the optical frequency of iodine transitions and look for further improvements in the iodine cell manufacturing technology that may lead to even smaller frequency shifts.

[1]  W R C Rowley,et al.  Verification of Iodine Cells for Stabilized Lasers Using the Hanle Effect , 1981 .

[2]  Terry Quinn,et al.  Results of recent international comparisons of national measurement standards carried out by the BIPM, 1996 , 1996 .

[3]  B. Popela,et al.  Design and performance of compact iodine stabilized He-Ne lasers at lambda =633 nm with a short optical resonator , 1993 .

[4]  Josef Lazar,et al.  Electronics for He-Ne-I2 stabilized laser with digital control , 1997 .

[5]  Frank Spieweck,et al.  Influence of Small Impurities in Absorption Cells of I2 Stabilized Lasers upon Their Frequency , 1985, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[6]  J. Helmcke,et al.  Intercomparison of I2-Stabilized He-Ne Lasers (λ = 633 nm) of the Institute of Scientific Instruments, CSSR, and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, FRG , 1990 .

[7]  L. Robertsson,et al.  International Comparison of Iodine-stabilized Helium-neon Lasers at λ = 633 nm Involving Seven Laboratories , 1991 .

[8]  John L. Hall,et al.  Optical heterodyne spectroscopy enhanced by an external optical cavity: toward improved working standards , 1990 .

[9]  Josef Lazar,et al.  Frequency comparison of He-Ne/iodine lasers at ? = 633 nm between the NILPRP and the ISI, and traceability through the BIPM , 1997 .

[10]  S Fredin-Picard,et al.  A Study of Contamination in 127I2 Cells Using Laser-Induced Fluorescence , 1989 .

[11]  Antti Lassila,et al.  International comparison of He-Ne lasers stabilized with 127I2 at λ = 633 nm: Comparison of the fifth- and third-harmonic locking techniques , 2000 .