Phase Coherent Manipulation of Light: From Precision Measurement to Ultrafast Spectroscopy

Abstract

Precise phase control of ultra-wide-bandwidth optical frequency combs has produced remarkable and unexpected progress in precision metrology and ultrafast science. The combination of the ability to do completely arbitrary, optical, waveform synthesis with recently developed optical pulse measurement techniques is analogous to the development of oscilloscopes and waveform generators in the early 20th century. The development of ultra-stable optical frequency standards into optical atomic clocks and optical frequency synthesizers again complement and rival the similar technologies developed in the radio frequency domain. I will cover a range of key advances that have been enabled by this revolutionary merge between the ultrafast and ultra-precision fields, including direct optical frequency measurement, carrier-envelope phase control, alloptical atomic clocks, optical frequency synthesizers, coherent pulse synthesis and distribution, and nonlinear spectroscopy.