Research on CO2 Laser Frequency Stabilization by Adjusting Grating Angle

A new frequency stabilization for CO2 laser with frequency selection by grating is presented in this paper. A closed-loop control system was designed to stabilize the laser frequency at the gain curve center by measuring the changing laser power continuously and fine adjusting the grating angle of the laser cavity. In the experiment, the long-term laser power and frequency shift of the CO2 laser 9P (10) line were measured to be less than +/-0.035 W and +/-7 MHz, respectively, when the frequency stabilization is in closed-loop operation. The CO2 laser frequency stability is up to 4.6 x 10(-8). The frequency stabilization control system owns advantages of small volume, compact structure. It can be also used for other type of lasers.