Fabrication and characterization of iodine photonic microcell for sub-Doppler spectroscopy and laser stabilization

We report on the development of all-fiber stand-alone Iodine-filled Photonic Microcells demonstrating record absorption contrast at room temperature. The microcell s fiber is made of inhibited coupling guiding hollow-core photonic crystal fibers. The fiber-core loading with Iodine was undertaken at 10-1 - 10-2mbar vapor pressure using a novel gas-manifold based on metallic vacuum parts with ceramic coated inner surfaces for corrosion resistance. The fiber is then sealed on the tips and mounted on FC/APC connectors for better integration with standard fiber components. The stand-alone microcells display Doppler lines with contrasts up to 73% in the 633nm wavelength range, and an insertion loss between 3 to 4dB. Sub-Doppler spectroscopy based on saturable absorption has been carried out to resolve the hyperfine structure of the P(33)6-3 lines at room temperature with a full-width at half maximum of 24MHz on the b4 component with the help of lock-in amplification. Also, we demonstrate distinguishable hyperfine components on the R(39)6-3 line at room temperature without any recourse to signal-to-noise ratio amplification techniques.