CO2 laser stabilization using an external cavity locked to a reference HeNe laser

Abstract

A method is described for stabilization of a cw CO2 laser by locking it to a modulated external cavity which is locked to a HeNe reference laser. This avoids the necessity of modulating the CO2 laser. Stability values of a few tens of kHz on the microsecond and minute time scales have been achieved.

Dual-mode stabilization for laser to radio-frequency locking by using a single-sideband modulation and a Fabry–Pérot cavity

“…Active stabilization of the cavity length is another approach. For example, one cavity mode can be locked to a HeNe laser to stabilize the laser frequency at the infrared region [32] . The laser frequency drift of hundreds of kilohertz at the infrared region has been demonstrated.…”