Low cost fast frequency switching driver for Acousto-Optic Modulators used in laser cooling

[Display omitted] In many laser atom cooling experiments, Acousto-Optic Modulators (AOM) are used to modulate a laser beam frequency close to an electronic resonance of the atoms. Commercially available RF drivers for the AOMs tend to be expensive ($2k and above) and can also require supplementary e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:HardwareX 2019-04, Vol.5, p.e00054, Article e00054
Main Authors: Bhandare, Aniket, Patnaik, Abhishek, Pommerenke, David, Sharma, Sachin, Fischer, Daniel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acousto-Optic Modulator (AOM) Driver system
Doppler cooling
RF modulation system
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:[Display omitted] In many laser atom cooling experiments, Acousto-Optic Modulators (AOM) are used to modulate a laser beam frequency close to an electronic resonance of the atoms. Commercially available RF drivers for the AOMs tend to be expensive ($2k and above) and can also require supplementary equipment such as power supplies and amplifiers. This article presents a low cost, compact, re-configurable, and portable modulator driver system. This system can switch between two frequencies within a period of few hundreds of ns, while giving the user complete control over the frequency range and output power up to about 2 W. This fast switching allows to toggle a laser beam between two optical fibers which could be used for cooling, imaging, or optical pumping of the laser-cooled atoms.
ISSN:2468-0672
2468-0672
DOI:10.1016/j.ohx.2019.e00054