An external cavity diode laser using a volume holographic grating

This study presents an external cavity diode laser (ECDL) system, utilizing a volume holographic grating (VHG) and a microfabricated silicon flexure as the VHG holder. The laser design is aimed for easy assembly, controllability, and better stability of the laser cavity. The laser frequency was stabilized to a D2 transition of rubidium at 780.247 nm, with a mode-hop-free tuning range of 16 GHz and 9.6 GHz with and without feed-forward on the diode injection current. The measured linewidth was 850 kHz in 500 s, qualified for laser cooling experiments.

► We present an external cavity diode laser (ECDL) system.
► A micromachined silicon flexure was used.
► A volume holographic grating (VHG) was utilized.
► A mode-hop-free tuning range of 16 GHz was obtained.
► The measured laser linewidth was 845 kHz in 500 s.