Precise determination of characteristic laser frequencies by an Er-doped fiber optical frequency comb

Femtosecond optical frequency combs correlate the microwave and optical frequencies accurately and coherently.Therefore,any optical frequency in visible to near-infrared region can be directly traced to a microwave frequency.As a result,the length unit“meter”is directly related to the time unit“second”.This paper validates the capability of the national wavelength standards based on a home-made Er-doped fiber femtosecond optical frequency comb to measure the laser frequencies ranging from visible to near-infrared region.Optical frequency conversion in the femtosecond optical frequency comb is achieved by combining spectral broadening in a highly nonlinear fiber with a single-point frequencydoubling scheme.The signal-to-noise ratio of the beat notes between the femtosecond optical frequency comb and the lasers at 633,698,729,780,1064,and 1542 nm is better than 30 d B.The frequency instability of the above lasers is evaluated by using a hydrogen clock signal with a instability of better than 1×10^(-13)at 1-s averaging time.The measurement is further validated by measuring the absolute optical frequency of an iodine-stabilized 532-nm laser and an acetylenestabilized 1542-nm laser.The results are within the uncertainty range of the international recommended values.Our results demonstrate the accurate optical frequency measurement of lasers at different frequencies using the femtosecond optical frequency comb,which is not only important for the precise and accurate traceability and calibration of the laser frequencies,but also provides technical support for establishing the national wavelength standards based on the femtosecond optical frequency comb.

Fiber-delay-line-referenced optical frequency combs:three stabilization schemes

We demonstrate the stabilization of an optical frequency comb(OFC) using a segment of fiber delay line as a reference. A mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser is phase locked to a kilometer-long fiber delay line using three different schemes. The short-term stability of the comb modes in the OFC stabilized by these schemes is obviously enhanced, down to the 10;level at millisecond average time. Among these three schemes, phase locking two bunches of comb modes in the OFC to the same fiber delay line exhibits the lowest residual phase noise. Fiber-delay-line-referenced OFCs can provide reliable laser sources in precise metrology owing to the advances of low cost, compactness, and high integration.