Acetylene-based frequency stabilization of a laser system for potassium laser cooling

Charbel Cherfan , Isam Manai (1) , Samir Zemmouri (1) , Jean-Claude Garreau (1) , Jean-François Clément (1) , Pascal Szriftgiser (1) , Radu Chicireanu (1)

1 PhLAM - Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, Atomes et Molécules - UMR 8523

We demonstrate a laser frequency stabilization technique for laser cooling of potassium atoms, based on saturated absorption spectroscopy in the C-Band optical telecommunication window, using ro-vibrational transitions of the acetylene molecule (12 C 2 H 2). We identified and characterized several molecular lines, which allow to address each of the potassium D2 (767 nm) and D1 (770 nm) cooling transitions, thanks to a high-power second harmonic generation (SHG) stage. We successfully used this laser system to cool the 41 K isotope of potassium in a 2D-3D Magneto-Optical Traps setup.

Domaines: Gaz Quantiques [cond-mat.quant-gas]

Charbel Cherfan, Isam Manai, Samir Zemmouri, Jean-Claude Garreau, Jean-François Clément, et al.. Acetylene-based frequency stabilization of a laser system for potassium laser cooling. 2019. ⟨hal-02416791v1⟩