Demonstration of an optical frequency synthesizer with zero carrier-envelope-offset frequency stabilized by the direct locking method

Abstract

We developed an optical frequency synthesizer (OFS) with the carrier-envelope-offset frequency locked to 0 Hz achieved using the "direct locking method." This method differs from a conventional phase-lock method in that the interference signal from a self-referencing f-2f interferometer is directly fed back to the carrier-envelope-phase control of a femtosecond laser in the time domain. A comparison of the optical frequency of the new OFS to that of a conventional OFS stabilized by a phase-lock method showed that the frequency comb of the new OFS was not different to that of the conventional OFS within an uncertainty of 5.68 x 10(-16). As a practical application of this OFS, we measured the absolute frequency of an acetylene-stabilized diode laser serving as an optical frequency standard in optical communications. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America