Fabrication and characterization of iodine photonic microcell for sub-Doppler spectroscopy and laser stabilization

Clément Goïcoechéa (1, 2) , Thomas Billotte (1) , Matthieu Chafer (1, 2) , Martin Maurel (1, 2) , Jenny Jouin (3) , Philippe Thomas (3) , Devang Naik (2) , Frédéric Gérôme (1, 2) , Benoît Debord (1, 2) , Fetah Benabid (1, 2)

1 XLIM-PHOT - Photonique Fibre et Sources Cohérentes
2 GLOphotonics S.A.S.
3 IRCER-AXE3 - IRCER - Axe 3 : organisation structurale multiéchelle des matériaux

We report on the development of all-fiber stand-alone Iodine-filled Photonic Microcells demonstrating record absorption contrast at room temperature. The microcell's fiber is made of inhibited coupling guiding hollow-core photonic crystal fibers. The fiber-core loading with Iodine was undertaken at 10-1-10-2 mbar vapor pressure using a novel gas-manifold based on metallic vacuum parts with ceramic coated inner surfaces for corrosion resistance. The fiber is then sealed on the tips and mounted on FC/APC connectors for better integration with standard fiber components. The stand-alone microcells display Doppler lines with contrasts up to 73% in the 633nm wavelength range, and an insertion loss between 3 to 4dB. Sub-Doppler spectroscopy based on saturable absorption has been carried out to resolve the hyperfine structure of the P(33)6-3 lines at room temperature with a full-width at half maximum of 24MHz on the b4 component with the help of lock-in amplification. Also, we demonstrate distinguishable hyperfine components on the R(39)6-3 line at room temperature without any recourse to signal-to-noise ratio amplification techniques.

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Clément Goïcoechéa, Thomas Billotte, Matthieu Chafer, Martin Maurel, Jenny Jouin, et al.. Fabrication and characterization of iodine photonic microcell for sub-Doppler spectroscopy and laser stabilization. 2023. ⟨hal-03946315⟩