Abstract
We developed an optical frequency synthesizer (OFS) with the carrier-envelope-offset frequency locked to 0 Hz achieved using the "direct locking method." This method differs from a conventional phaselock method in that the interference signal from a self-referencing f-2f interferometer is directly fed back to the carrier-envelope-phase control of a femtosecond laser in the time domain. A comparison of the optical frequency of the new OFS to that of a conventional OFS stabilized by a phase-lock method showed that the frequency comb of the new OFS was not different to that of the conventional OFS within an uncertainty of 5.68x10(-16). As a practical application of this OFS, we measured the absolute frequency of an acetylene-stabilized diode laser serving as an optical frequency standard in optical communications.
Highlights
The femtosecond mode-locked laser (FML) has become an essential tool for a variety of applications, such as absolute optical frequency measurements [1, 2, 3, 4], high-resolution spectroscopy [5], and determinations of fundamental physical constants [6] over the past decade with exceptional optical frequency traceability to microwave frequency standards. Such achievements were made possible by the advent of the stabilizing technology for the optical comb that allowed it to be used as an optical frequency synthesizer (OFS), where the repetition frequency and the carrier-envelope-offset frequency should be stabilized to a precise frequency reference, such as a Cs clock, by the phase-locked loop (PLL) method
We demonstrated a new method for the construction of an optical frequency synthesizer based on a femtosecond mode-locked laser with a zero carrier-envelope-offset frequency
A simple and inexpensive direct locking method (DLM) technique was adopted and the repetition frequency was stabilized to an hydrogen maser (H-maser) with the well-known PLL method
Summary
The femtosecond mode-locked laser (FML) has become an essential tool for a variety of applications, such as absolute optical frequency measurements [1, 2, 3, 4], high-resolution spectroscopy [5], and determinations of fundamental physical constants [6] over the past decade with exceptional optical frequency traceability to microwave frequency standards Such achievements were made possible by the advent of the stabilizing technology for the optical comb that allowed it to be used as an optical frequency synthesizer (OFS), where the repetition frequency ( frep) and the carrier-envelope-offset frequency ( fceo) should be stabilized to a precise frequency reference, such as a Cs clock, by the phase-locked loop (PLL) method. As an example of a practical application, we measured the absolute frequency of an acetylene-stabilized diode laser used as an optical frequency standard in optical communications
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