Product Code: ILSC2009_C101

Properties of Optical Frequency Combs
Authors:
Steven T. Cundiff, JILA, NIST and University of Colorado; Boulder CO USA
Presented at ILSC 2009

Optical frequency combs have become a very active area of research over the last decade. Their primary applications have been optical frequency metrology and optical atomic clocks, however they are also being applied to chemical sensing, length metrology, optical waveform generation and extreme nonlinear optics. I will briefly introduce frequency combs, how they are produced and why they are useful for these applications. Typically frequency combs are produced by using nonlinearity in optical fiber to spectrally broaden the output of a mode-locked laser. A key aspect of frequency combs is their very broad spectrum, which poses a safety challenge. I will also give an overview of the typical operating characteristics of optical frequency combs.