Efficient electro-optic modulator for optical pumping of Na beams

An electro-optic modulator using LiTaO3 is described which yields 34% of the carrier intensity in each of the first-order sidebands with rf phase modulation frequencies fm∼1.0 GHz and ≲1.0 W input power. The modulator makes use of a lumped resonator with Q∼200 to obtain efficient production of the sidebands. It is shown that the device can be scaled for operation at ∼2 GHz. Applications of this modulator include optical pumping of the lighter alkali atoms, FM sideband spectroscopy, and laser phase/frequency stabilization using rf modulation techniques.