SATURATION STABILIZATION OF THE CO FUNDAMENTAL-BAND LASER

We recently reported the extension of CO laser operation to a variety of single-line transitions in the fundamental band (v = 1 --> 0). Now saturation stabilization of these lines could be achieved using an intracavity absorption cell with CO at low pressure. A 3f-detection technique allowed reliable frequency locking on transitions from P(8) to P(14). A frequency stability of better than 10 kHz was indicated. The frequency of the P(14) transition was measured in a heterodyne experiment to be 62, 546, 358.324 (50) MHz.