Versatile optical frequency comb

Introduction

Frequency combs are optical sources that can be used as rulers. Any unknown frequency can be very precisely measured by comparing it to the nearest tooth of the comb. The technology has revolutionized metrology and spectroscopy, among others, and its inventors were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2005.

Frequency Comb Generation

To obtain a frequency comb, a periodic optical pattern must be generated. There are different ways of forming optical patterns, and different technologies are used, depending on the required comb spacing (which corresponds to the repetition rate of the pattern).

Examples of Repetition Rates

1. High repetition rate combs are used for calibration of astronomical spectrographs.
2. Low repetition rates are used for spectroscopy or ranging.

Proposed Device

We propose to fabricate a completely novel device whose repetition rate can be tuned over three orders of magnitude, covering most applications of frequency combs. The device would merge the advantages of the existing technologies, in terms of power and stability.

Market Impact

We expect our device to have a strong impact on the market of frequency comb generators and will investigate different paths towards commercialization of the prototype.