Laser frequency stabilization using direct and offset locking techniques

Stabilization of laser diodes at precise and stable frequencies is of great importance in many applications, such as high-resolution spectroscopy and differential absorption LIDAR (DIAL). Frequency stabilization is generally performed by using atomic or molecular absorption lines (direct locking). However, it is sometimes necessary to lock a laser at a frequency located outside of any absorption peaks. In this case, an offset-locking configuration is necessary, in which a so-called slave laser is locked at a given frequency difference with respect to a stabilized master laser. In this poster, we present first experimental results on the stabilization of several lasers, using both direct locking on a molecular absorption line and offset-locking with frequency differences up to 20 GHz.