Phase-Coherent Synthesis of Optical Frequencies and Waveforms

Published

June 1, 2002

Author(s)

Jun Ye, Steven T. Cundiff, S M. Foreman, T M. Fortier, John L. Hall, K W. Holman, D J. Jones, J D. Jost, H C. Kapteyn, K A. Leeuwen, L -. Ma, M M. Murnane, J L. Peng, R K. Shelton

Abstract

Precision phase control of an ultrawide-bandwidth optical-frequency comb has produced remarkable and unexpected progress in both areas of optical-frequency metrology and ultrafast optics. A frequency comb (with 100 MHz spacing) spanning an entire optical octave (> 300 THz) has been produced, corresponding to millions of marks on a frequency ruler that are stable at the Hz level. The precision comb has been used to establish a simple optical clock based on an optical transition of iodine molecules, providing an rf clock signal with a frequency stability comparable to that of an optical standard, and which is superior to almost all conventional rf sources. To realize a high-power cw optical frequency synthesizer, a separate, widely tunable single-frequency cw laser has beenemployed to randomly access the stabilized optical comb and lock to any desired comb component. Carrier-envelope phase stabilization of few-cycle optical pulses has recently been realized. This advance in femtosecond technology isimportant for both extreme non-linear optics and optical-frequency metrology. With two independent femtosecond lasers, we have not only synchronized their relative pulse timing at the femtosecond level, but have also phase-lockedtheir carrier frequencies, thus establishing phase coherence between the two lasers. By coherently stitching the optical bandwidth together, a synthesized pulse has been generated with its 2nd-order autocorrelation signal displaying a shorter width than those of the two parent lasers.

Citation

Applied Physics B-Lasers and Optics

Volume

74

Issue

Suppl. S

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

optical comb, precision spectroscopy, ultrafast lasers

Citation

Ye, J. , Cundiff, S. , Foreman, S. , Fortier, T. , Hall, J. , Holman, K. , Jones, D. , Jost, J. , Kapteyn, H. , Leeuwen, K. , Ma, L. , Murnane, M. , Peng, J. and Shelton, R. (2002), Phase-Coherent Synthesis of Optical Frequencies and Waveforms, Applied Physics B-Lasers and Optics (Accessed October 10, 2025)