Improvement of the intensity noise and frequency stabilization of Nd:YAP laser with an ultra-low expansion Fabry-Perot cavity

Continuous-wave, single-frequency, solid-state lasers with long-term frequency stability and low-intensity noise are an essential resource to generate squeezed and entangled states of light. In order to obtain the stable, nonclassical states of light, the frequency of the laser has to be stabilized with a stable reference. Due to the zero expansion property at a certain temperature, an ultra-low expansion (ULE) Fabry-Perot (F-P) cavity with a high finesse can be used as one of the best candidates of the frequency reference. We perform a detailed analysis of an extraordinarily high-frequency stability and ultra-low-intensity noise laser based on an improved cascade Pound-Drever-Hall frequency stabilization to a ULE F-P cavity. The frequency drift of the laser is suppressed to 7.72 MHz in 4 hours, and the noise level of the laser is simultaneously reduced to the quantum noise limit in the frequency below 300 kHz, which provides the possibility for the direct generation of a stable, high-level squeezed state in a lower-frequency region. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement