Stark cell stabilization of CO2 laser

A technique is demonstrated for locking of a GHz tunable waveguide CO2 laser to a voltage programmable absorption line in NH2D. Precision frequency control is demonstrated over the tuning range of the laser and long-term frequency stability of better than ±100 kHz is demonstrated. The advantages of the present technique are that no frequency modulation of the laser is required to generate an error signal and the laser frequency is determined by a linear relationship to the Stark cell voltage.