Low cost fast frequency switching driver for Acousto-Optic Modulators used in laser cooling

• Main Authors: Aniket Bhandare, Abhishek Patnaik, David Pommerenke, Sachin Sharma, Daniel Fischer
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2019-04-01
• Series: HardwareX
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S246806721830066X

In many laser atom cooling experiments, Acousto-Optic Modulators (AOM) are used to modulate a laser beam frequency close to an electronic resonance of the atoms. Commercially available RF drivers for the AOMs tend to be expensive ($2k and above) and can also require supplementary equipment such as power supplies and amplifiers. This article presents a low cost, compact, re-configurable, and portable modulator driver system. This system can switch between two frequencies within a period of few hundreds of ns, while giving the user complete control over the frequency range and output power up to about 2 W. This fast switching allows to toggle a laser beam between two optical fibers which could be used for cooling, imaging, or optical pumping of the laser-cooled atoms. Keywords: Acousto-Optic Modulator (AOM) Driver system, Doppler cooling, RF modulation system