Spectrally-Pure Optical Serrodyne Modulation for Continuously-Tunable Laser Offset Locking

Abstract: The comb-like spectrum added to laser light by an electro-optic modulator (EOM) finds use in a wide range of applications including coherent optical communication, laser frequency and phase stabilization, and atomic spectroscopy. In some cases a sideband-free optical frequency shift is preferred, such as in laser-offset locking using an optical cavity, single-photon frequency shifting, and laser range finding. Approaches to obtaining an optical frequency offset (OFO) involve trade-offs between shift range, conversion gain, and suppression of spurious sidebands. Here we demonstrate an OFO of continuous-wave laser light by serrodyne modulation using a fiber EOM and radio-frequency (RF) tones from a commodity RF system on a chip (RFSoC) to achieve shifts of 40 to 800 MHz with > 15 dB suppression of spurious sidebands and < 1.5 dB conversion loss. We also observe smoothly-varying conversion gain. The utility of this tool is demonstrated by continuously shifting the offset of a cavity-locked laser from 50 to 1600 MHz, a capability useful in spectroscopy of unknown optical transitions.