Iodine stabilized IR laser sources

We report on the frequency stabilization of an infrared (IR) laser emitting at 1.5 μm onto molecular iodine hyperfine transitions at 514 nm. Third harmonic generation process based on Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate non linear crystals (PPLN) is used to link the IR emission to the green region. We have developed and tested a compact experimental setup using a multi-pass iodine cell in order to meet transportable/spatial requirements. Narrow hyperfine iodine lines (FWHM ∼ 300 kHz) corresponding to a quality factor Q > 10
⁹
are already detected and used for the IR sources stabilization purpose.