HIGH-POWER BROAD-AREA DIODE-LASERS FOR LASER COOLING

This work describes an experimental investigation on the applicability of an injection-locked broad-area diode laser for laser cooling, whic h requires narrow-linewidth light. Unlike diode laser arrays, injectio n locked broad-area lasers have so far not been demonstrated to operat e on a linewidth below 1 MHz. Using a heterodyne technique, we show th at the frequency of the master laser is tracked by the locked broad-ar ea laser to within 2 kHz. This implies that when a narrow-linewidth la ser is used as a master, an equally narrow-linewidth output can be obt ained. Furthermore, we investigated practical aspects like ease of ali gnment, and tuning behavior. We conclude that an injection-locked broa d-area laser can be an excellent laser source for applications requiri ng high-power narrow-linewidth laser light, like non-linear spectrosco py and laser cooling.