Frequency stabilization of an external cavity diode laser to molecular iodine at 657.483 nm.

The saturation spectrum of the P(84) 5-5 transition of 127I2 at 657.483 nm is obtained with the third-harmonic demodulation method using an external cavity diode laser. The laser frequency is modulated by modulating the diode current instead of modulating the cavity length with a piezoelectric transducer (PZT). Current modulation allows a modulation frequency that is higher than PZT modulation. The signal-to-noise ratio of 1000 is better than previous results presented in the literature. The laser is frequency stabilized to the hyperfine component o of the P(84) 5-5 transition with a frequency stability of better than 10 kHz (2.2 x 10(-11) relative stability).