Letter abstract


Nature Photonics 2, 355 - 359 (2008)
Published online: 18 May 2008 | doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.79

Subject Categories: Nonlinear optics | Ultrafast photonics

Optical frequency comb with submillihertz linewidth and more than 10 W average power

T. R. Schibli1, I. Hartl2, D. C. Yost1, M. J. Martin1, A. Marcinkevic caronius2, M. E. Fermann2 & J. Ye1


Growing demands for high average and peak powers in extreme nonlinear optics1, attosecond-pulse2, 3 and extreme ultraviolet comb generation experiments4, 5 can find a powerful solution in fibre-based mode-locked lasers. Using passive enhancement cavities6, fibre lasers have produced high-repetition-rate femtosecond pulse trains with multikilowatt average powers and peak powers reaching hundreds of megawatts7. One major challenge for novel high-resolution spectroscopy and precision measurement in suboptical wavelength regions8, 9, 10 is to transfer the state-of-the-art optical phase coherence into the extreme ultraviolet domain through the extreme nonlinear optics enabled by these high-power systems. We demonstrate here that optical frequency combs produced by high-power fibre lasers reach unprecedented levels of performance in both precision and average power. We achieve a record low relative linewidth of <1 mHz between a traditional Ti:sapphire frequency comb and a novel 10 W average power fibre comb, at the same time demonstrating all the necessary elements for power scaling precision comb technology to beyond 10 kW.

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  1. JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA
  2. IMRA America, 1044 Woodridge Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105, USA

Correspondence to: T. R. Schibli1 e-mail: t.schibli@osa.org



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