Measurement and control of residual amplitude modulation in optical phase modulation

Abstract

Residual amplitude modulation is one of the major sources of instability in ultra-sensitive optical detections based on frequency modulation. Using a MgO·LiNbO(3) electro-optic crystal, we systematically measure the temperature and polarization dependence of residual amplitude modulation and our experimental results are in good agreement with a previous theoretical analysis. After optical phase modulation, two independent arms including optical detection and frequency demodulation are employed to closely examine the instability of the residual amplitude modulation. Residual amplitude modulation below 25 ppm is obtained with an active cancellation scheme in which the crystal temperature is varied so as to zero the baseline drifts with different origins. Possible improvements for better suppression and stability are discussed.