A practical guide to feedback control for Pound-Drever-Hall laser linewidth narrowing

A practical guide to feedback control for Pound-Drever-Hall laser linewidth narrowing | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article A practical guide to feedback control for Pound-Drever-Hall laser linewidth narrowing Wance Wang, Sarthak Subhankar, Joseph W. Britton This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6271070/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 24 Jun, 2025 Read the published version in Applied Physics B → Version 1 posted 11 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The Pound–Drever–Hall (PDH) technique for laser linewidth narrowing is widely used by AMO experimentalists. However, achieving a high-performance PDH locking requires substantial engineering experience, which is scattered across literature and often lacks a cohesive control-theory perspective. Excellent pedagogical papers exist on the theory of the PDH error signal [1–4], but they rarely cover feedback control. General-purpose control theory literature [5, 6] seldom discusses PDH laser locking specifically. Although excellent PDH review articles [7–9] provide thorough knowledge and practice on both aspects, they are not novice-friendly. We extend prior works [7–9] by addressing component choice and loop tuning using modern tools like a vector network analyzer. We organize multifaceted engineering considerations systematically, grounded in feedback control principles. Our target reader is researchers setting up a PDH laser lock for the first time; we eschew advanced topics like minimizing residual amplitude modulation (RAM). Our guidance is illustrated by step-by-step optimization of the lock for a 1650 nm ECDL. Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 24 Jun, 2025 Read the published version in Applied Physics B → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 02 May, 2025 Reviews received at journal 02 May, 2025 Reviews received at journal 02 May, 2025 Reviews received at journal 14 Apr, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 26 Mar, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 26 Mar, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 25 Mar, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 25 Mar, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 21 Mar, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 21 Mar, 2025 First submitted to journal 20 Mar, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6271070","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":434397655,"identity":"66156a33-81ea-49bb-8e1c-855fc60c9b59","order_by":0,"name":"Wance Wang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAApElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYJACZgYGGyCVwMDAQ4KWNNK1HCZBi8GN5GePC9vOJ65tT2B88LaNKC1p5sYz224nbjvzgNlwLjFazG7nsEnzgrTcSAAxiNdyDqSF/TcpWg6AbWEmSov9/Wfmxjznko23nXnYLDnnHBFaJHsOP3vMU2Ynu+148sEPb8qI0AIEbAyMbCCasYE49WAtDH+IVjwKRsEoGAUjEQAAYzk5iJpkz+YAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"University of Maryland, College Park","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Wance","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":434397656,"identity":"dba2f8e7-5ee2-4a86-8924-79059547576f","order_by":1,"name":"Sarthak Subhankar","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"National Institute of Standards and Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sarthak","middleName":"","lastName":"Subhankar","suffix":""},{"id":434397657,"identity":"79c41af9-eaac-4e34-a542-888ed01ad147","order_by":2,"name":"Joseph W. Britton","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Maryland, College Park","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Joseph","middleName":"W.","lastName":"Britton","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-03-20 15:38:23","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6271070/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6271070/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-025-08490-3","type":"published","date":"2025-06-24T15:57:34+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":85686165,"identity":"6dd2362b-0e1e-4abd-b43b-98541b56b0d8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-30 16:04:09","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1229044,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"pdhtutorialapb.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6271070/v1_covered_561adbb3-61cd-4b9b-9553-8786287e7103.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"A practical guide to feedback control for Pound-Drever-Hall laser linewidth narrowing","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"applied-physics-b","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"aphb","sideBox":"Learn more about [Applied Physics B](http://link.springer.com/journal/340)","snPcode":"340","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/340/3","title":"Applied Physics B","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6271070/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6271070/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"The Pound–Drever–Hall (PDH) technique for laser linewidth narrowing is widely used by AMO experimentalists. However, achieving a high-performance PDH locking requires substantial engineering experience, which is scattered across literature and often lacks a cohesive control-theory perspective. Excellent pedagogical papers exist on the theory of the PDH error signal [1–4], but they rarely cover feedback control. General-purpose control theory literature [5, 6] seldom discusses PDH laser locking specifically. Although excellent PDH review articles [7–9] provide thorough knowledge and practice on both aspects, they are not novice-friendly. We extend prior works [7–9] by addressing component choice and loop tuning using modern tools like a vector network analyzer. We organize multifaceted engineering considerations systematically, grounded in feedback control principles. Our target reader is researchers setting up a PDH laser lock for the first time; we eschew advanced topics like minimizing residual amplitude modulation (RAM). Our guidance is illustrated by step-by-step optimization of the lock for a 1650 nm ECDL.","manuscriptTitle":"A practical guide to feedback control for Pound-Drever-Hall laser linewidth narrowing","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-04-03 05:34:33","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6271070/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2025-05-02T19:58:06+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-05-02T19:41:16+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-05-02T15:30:19+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-04-14T06:29:25+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"224722236956547561830931114672865591132","date":"2025-03-26T15:23:40+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"197908996486421323291463037213447488713","date":"2025-03-26T11:12:24+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"229851293659121767273435064828047336825","date":"2025-03-25T08:41:01+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-03-25T08:37:24+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-03-21T16:21:33+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-03-21T08:30:13+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Applied Physics B","date":"2025-03-20T15:31:21+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"applied-physics-b","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"aphb","sideBox":"Learn more about [Applied Physics B](http://link.springer.com/journal/340)","snPcode":"340","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/340/3","title":"Applied Physics B","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"20d8a103-79cb-4747-8b7c-2ba93285b0ca","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 3rd, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-06-30T16:00:34+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-6271070","link":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-025-08490-3","journal":{"identity":"applied-physics-b","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Applied Physics B"},"publishedOn":"2025-06-24 15:57:34","publishedOnDateReadable":"June 24th, 2025"},"versionCreatedAt":"2025-04-03 05:34:33","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1007/s00340-025-08490-3","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-025-08490-3","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6271070","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6271070","identity":"rs-6271070","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}