SPECTROSCOPY WITH DIODE-LASER NOISE

Conversion of laser frequency noise to amplitude noise via interaction with a resonant medium is described. Both experiment and theory show an asymmetric M-shaped noise intensity as a function of laser frequenc y. We also observe features corresponding to ground state atomic hyper fine structure in the rf spectrum of the noise for the case of K vapor . A calculation of the intensity correlation function of the transmitt ed light yields an rf spectrum which has the qualitative features obse rved in the experiment. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.