A blue dye laser with sub-kilohertz stability

We have stabilized the frequency of a commercial ring dye laser operating in the blue near 486 nm with an internal electro-optic modulator, using optical heterodyne detection of phase-modulated light reflected from a reference cavity. With a servo bandwidth of 10 MHz, the short-term stability has been reduced below 1 kHz. Frequency doubling of this laser will provide highly monochromatic 243 nm radiation for high resolution spectroscopy of the two-photon hydrogen 1S-2S transition. © 1989.