Pulse Controlled Frequency-Chirped Laser Light at Large Detuning for Use in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Experiments

We have developed a laser system that generates a moderate frequency chirp (1 GHz in 4 ns) at a large controllable detuning (\textasciitilde 7 GHz) using an electro-optical phase modulator in an injection-lock laser system.~ This system can effectively pulse the laser on timescales less than 3 ns by turning on and off the injection lock.~ This system can also create arbitrary frequency chirp shapes on the laser on the tens of nanosecond time scales with a cutoff frequency of 200 MHz.~ As a test of the laser system, we have explored excitation of a room-temperature atomic Rb gas with frequency-chirped light.~ We have found that our experimental results agree with the solution to the Optical Bloch equations for the same parameters.