Generation of frequency-chirped laser pulses by an electro-optic amplitude modulator

Abstract We propose a single electro-optic amplitude modulator to modulate both the intensity and the phase of the light of a diode laser to produce frequency-chirped light pulses in the nanosecond time range. The two-in-one property of the Mach–Zehnder type electro-optic amplitude modulator is used to create a specific device available for experiments with cooled atoms. The phase induced in each optical path of the Mach–Zehnder interferometer and the phase-to-intensity modulation ratio, the intrinsic chirp parameter of the device is determined by generating high order optical harmonics.