We present a versatile, inexpensive and simple optical phase lock for applications in atomic physics experiments. Thanks to all-digital phase detection and implementation of beat frequency pre-scaling, the apparatus requires no microwave-range refere
nce input, and permits phase locking at frequency differences ranging from sub-MHz to 7 GHz (and with minor extension, to 12 GHz). The locking range thus covers ground state hyperfine splittings of all alkali metals, which makes this system a universal tool for many experiments on coherent interaction between light and atoms.
We use a quantum non-demolition measurement to generate a spin squeezed state and to create entanglement in a cloud of 10^5 cold cesium atoms, and for the first time operate an atomic clock improved by spin squeezing beyond the projection noise limit
in a proof-of-principle experiment. For a clock-interrogation time of 10 mus the experiments show an improvement of 1.1 dB in the signal-to-noise ratio, compared to the atomic projection noise limit.
