A wide-range optical frequency generator based on the frequency comb of a femtosecond laser

Abstract

A precise way of optical frequency generation is demonstrated with direct use of the frequency comb of a mode-locked femtosecond laser. Only a single mode is extracted at a time on demand from the frequency comb through a composite filtering scheme and then amplified by means of optical injection locking with extremely low background noise. Generated output signals are found to preserve not only the narrow linewidths of the selected individual modes but also the absolute frequency positions of the original comb over a wide spectral range. These outstanding performances of optical frequency generation could find applications in high precision spectroscopy, frequency calibration, and length metrology. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.