A precise length etalon generator controlled by femtosecond mode-locked laser

Radek Šmid; Ondřej Čip; Josef Lazar

doi:10.1117/12.735182

12 September 2007 A precise length etalon generator controlled by femtosecond mode-locked laser

Radek Šmid, Ondřej Čip, Josef Lazar

Proceedings Volume 6673, Time and Frequency Metrology; 66730O (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.735182
Event: Optical Engineering + Applications, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The progress in the field of optical frequency standards is oriented to femtosecond mode-locked lasers stabilized by technique of the optical frequency synthesis. Such a laser produces a supercontinuum light, which is composed of a cluster of coherent frequency components in certain interval of wavelengths. A value of the repetition rate of femtosecond pulses determines (in the frequency domain) spacing of these coherent components. If we control the mode-locked laser by means of i.e. atomic clocks we ensure frequency of these components very stable. With respect to definition of SI unit "one meter" on basis of speed of light the stabilized mode-locked laser can be used for implementation of this definition by non-traditional way. In the work we present our proposal of a system, which converts excellent frequency stability of components generated by the mode-locked laser to a net of discrete absolute lengths represented by a distance of two mirrors of an optical resonator. On basis of theory, the optical resonator with a cavity length has a periodic frequency spectrum Similarly the frequency of i-th comb component could be written as: f_i = f_ceo + i f_rep, where f_ceo is the comb offset frequency and f_rep is the repetition rate. For the simplicity we presume the offset frequency f_ceo equals to zero. If the supercontinuum beam of the mode-locked laser illuminates the resonator and at the same time the cavity length L is adjusted to length L_p = c / (2 p f_rep ) then both spectra fit. The symbol 'p' is an integer value. It produces intensity maximum in the output of the cavity, which is detected by a photodetector and locked in the servo-loop. For absolute discrete values of cavity lengths L_p that well satisfy the condition above we obtain precise etalons of length.

Citation Download Citation

Radek Šmid, Ondřej Čip, and Josef Lazar "A precise length etalon generator controlled by femtosecond mode-locked laser", Proc. SPIE 6673, Time and Frequency Metrology, 66730O (12 September 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.735182

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KEYWORDS

Mode locking

Fabry–Perot interferometers

Optical resonators

Femtosecond phenomena

Laser resonators

Resonators

Laser stabilization

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