The frequency of the 3.39hyphen;mgr;m Hehyphen;Ne laser whose output beam does not contain any artificial frequency modulation was newly stabilized in reference to the saturated absorption line of CH4gas contained in an external cell. Instead of modulating frequency by vibrating the resonator length, the frequency modulation was given by an external vibrating mirror on which the laser beam was reflected. A 3.39hyphen;mgr;m lowhyphen;noise optical amplifier was also used for observing saturated absorption in the external cell. A signal proportional to a frequency deviation from the reference absorption line was fed back to the resonator to control its length such that the frequency deviation was minimized. The shorthyphen;term stability so achieved under a proportional feedback control was plusmn;1.25times;10minus;12/min, the frequency drift was 2.3times;10minus;10/h, and the longhyphen;term stability under an integral feedback control was plusmn;3.5times;10minus;11over 5 h.
展开▼
