A New Type of Frequency Chain and its Application to Fundamental Frequency Metrology

Published

June 1, 2001

Author(s)

Thomas Udem, J Reichert, R Holzwarth, Scott Diddams, D J. Jones, Jun Ye, S T. Cundiff, T W. Hansch, John L. Hall

Abstract

A suitable femtosecond (fs) laser system can provide a broad band comb of stable optical frequencies and thus can serve as an rf/opticalcoherent link. In this way we have performed a direct comparison of the 1 S - 2S transition in atomic hydrogen at 121 nm with a cesium fountainclock, built at the LPTF/Paris, to reach an accuracy of 1.9 x 10¹⁴. The same comb-line counting technique was exploited to determine andrecalibrate several important optical frequency standards. In particular, the improved measurement of the Cesium D, line is necessary for amore precise determination of the fine structure constant. In addition, several of the best-known optical frequency standards have beenrecalibrated via the fs method. By creating an octave-spanning frequency comb a single-laser frequency chain has been realized and tested.

Proceedings Title

Hydrogen Atom 2: Precision Physics of Simple Atom Systems, Meeting | | | Springer

Volume

No. 570

Conference Dates

June 1, 2000

Conference Location

Pescala, 1, IT

Conference Title

Lecture Notes in Physics

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

femtosecond lasers, metrology, optical clocks, optical frequencies

Citation

Udem, T. , Reichert, J. , Holzwarth, R. , Diddams, S. , Jones, D. , Ye, J. , Cundiff, S. , Hansch, T. and Hall, J. (2001), A New Type of Frequency Chain and its Application to Fundamental Frequency Metrology, Hydrogen Atom 2: Precision Physics of Simple Atom Systems, Meeting | | | Springer, Pescala, 1, IT (Accessed October 9, 2025)