Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 5102 - 5105 (2000)Direct Link between Microwave and Optical Frequencies with a 300 THz Femtosecond Laser Comb |
Scott A. Diddams *, David J. Jones, Jun Ye, Steven T. Cundiff, and John L. Hall †
JILA, University of Colorado, and National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80309
Jinendra K. Ranka and Robert S. Windeler
Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, 700 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, New Jersey 070974
Ronald Holzwarth, Thomas Udem, and T. W. Hänsch
Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching, Germany
Received 17 February 2000
We demonstrate a great simplification in the long-standing problem of measuring optical frequencies in terms of the cesium primary standard. An air-silica microstructure optical fiber broadens the frequency comb of a femtosecond laser to span the optical octave from 1064 to 532 nm, enabling us to measure the 282 THz frequency of an iodine-stabilized Nd:YAG laser directly in terms of the microwave frequency that controls the comb spacing. Additional measurements of established optical frequencies at 633 and 778 nm using the same femtosecond comb confirm the accepted uncertainties for these standards.
©2000 The American Physical Society
URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v84/p5102
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.5102
PACS: 42.65.Re, 06.20.-f, 42.62.Eh
* Current address: NIST, Time and Frequency Division, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303.
† Email address: jhall@jila.colorado.edu
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