The Faraday laser, with Faraday anomalous dispersion optical filter (FADOF) as frequency-selection element, is a natural narrow-bandwidth light source for laser physic experiments. In this work, a dual-frequency (DF) Faraday laser is demonstrated for the first time on Cs D2 line at 852 nm. The frequencies of the two modes of DF Faraday laser hinge on the peak transition frequencies of 852 nm FADOF transmittance spectrum corresponding to the ground state F = 4 and F = 3. The frequency difference between the two modes is tunable over a range of 1.4 GHz with the temperature of Cs vapor cell inside the FADOF. The linewidth of each laser mode is less than 33 kHz. Furthermore, the most probable linewidth of the beat-note spectra between the two modes is 902.95 Hz at different vapor-cell temperatures. Such a DF Faraday laser has many potential applications in atomic physics, such as sub-Doppler spectroscopy and coherent population trapping atomic clocks.

We achieved a low-cost and small-sized Rb optical frequency standard based on Rb 5S → 6P transition with 10 stability, which is comparable with that of the best 532 nm I optical frequency standards. In this system, we directly lock the 420 nm diode laser on the 5S F = 3 → 6P F = 4 hyperfine transition line without an additional Pound-Drever-Hall pre-locking system. The signal-to-noise-ratio reaches as high as 350 000 when the averaging time is at 1 s. Eventually by the fluctuation of the residual error signal after locking, the preliminary stability of the optical frequency standard reaches 1.2×10/τ, decreasing to 2.1 × 10 at 80 s. It shows potential in stability performance, experimental cost, and system volume compared with the 532 nm I optical frequency standard as a wavelength standard. It also opens a door for the achievement of wavelength standards by using higher excited states of alkalies.

In this Letter, stabilizing a Faraday laser frequency to the atomic transition is proposed and experimentally demonstrated, where the Faraday laser can work at single- or dual-frequency modes. High-resolution spectroscopy of a cesium atom induced by a Faraday laser is obtained. By stabilizing a Faraday laser with atomic spectroscopy, the frequency fluctuations of the Faraday laser are suppressed without the need of a high-cost Pound–Drever–Hall system. The fractional frequency Allan deviation of the residual error signal is 3 × 10[Formula: see text] at the single-frequency mode. While at the dual-frequency mode, the linewidth of the beat-note spectra between the two modes of the Faraday laser after locking is narrowed to be 85 Hz, which is an order of magnitude better than the free-running linewidth. It can be used for microwave atomic clocks and may have the potential to be used in the application of optical microwave generation when the performance is further improved.

Without exploiting any frequency selective elements, we have realized a highly integrated, single-mode, narrow-linewidth Nd:YAG 1064 nm laser, which is end-pumped by the 808.6 nm diode laser in an integrated invar cavity. It turns out that each 1064 nm laser achieves a most probable linewidth of 8.5 kHz by beating between two identical laser systems. The output power of the 1064 nm laser increases steadily as the 808.6 nm pump power is raised, which can be up to 350 mW. Moreover, the resonant wavelength of cavity grows continuously in a certain crystal temperature range. Such a 1064 nm laser will be frequency stabilized to an ultrastable cavity by using the Pound-Drever-Hall technique and used as the good cavity laser to lock the main cavity length of 1064/1470 nm good-bad cavity dual-wavelength active optical clock.