Continuous detuning of an optical cavity with a Universally Tunable Modulator

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 51).It is currently well-known how to lock an optical cavity on resonance using the Pound- Drever-Hall technique. It is also possible to lock a cavity at a single detuned length using an amplitude modulated laser beam. However, there are many interesting applications, that would benefit from the use of a Universally Tunable Modulator (UTM), because it can create any ratio of amplitude to phase modulation. The unique transfer function of the UTM allows for cavity locking at any of the intermediate points between resonance and about half a linewidth of detuning. In this thesis, we construct such a UTM and verify experimentally that the modulator can indeed be used for continuous detuning of optical cavities.by Emily Davis.S.B