A system for exciting Rubidium atoms to Rydberg states has been constructed to study the interactions between them and metal surfaces. This thesis describes a method to reach the f Rydberg series using diode lasers. Since the diode lasers need to be frequency stabilized for this excitation, a transfer cavity stabilization method was implemented using the Pound-Drever-Hall technique. To obtain the necessary frequency modulation the diode laser was current modulated at ∼ 6 MHz. A noise cancellation circuit was used to suppress detection of the accompanying residual intensity modulation.

A system for exciting Rubidium atoms to Rydberg states has been constructed to study the interactions between them and metal surfaces. This thesis describes a method to reach the f Rydberg series using diode lasers. Since the diode lasers need to be frequency stabilized for this excitation, a transfer cavity stabilization method was implemented using the Pound-Drever-Hall technique. To obtain the necessary frequency modulation the diode laser was current modulated at ∼ 6 MHz. A noise cancellation circuit was used to suppress detection of the accompanying residual intensity modulation.