Narrowing laser linewidth using a stabilized optical frequency comb

Abstract

We narrow the line width of a 1083 nm laser by phase-locking to an Nd:YAG non-planar ring oscillator (NPRO) via an optical frequency comb. The comb transfers the narrow linewidth of the iodine-stabilized NPRO (<2 kHz) from 1064 nm to thousands of wavelengths throughout the visible and infrared regimes. Lasers phase-locked to the comb will have the narrow linewidth of the NPRO. We demonstrate this linewidth-narrowing scheme for an external-cavity diode laser at 1083 nm, showing a 10-fold reduction in linewidth from 54 kHz to 5.5 kHz