Atomic Physics Seminars

Optical frequency combs (OFC) have dramatically changed the paradigm for precision optical frequency measurements. Modern precision measurements rely upon the comb to act as a frequency gear-work to bridge a reference frequency (microwave or optical) to another frequency of interest, which can result in 17 digits of measurement accuracy. For such frequency comparisons, which often span hundreds of nanometers, the noise contribution of the comb itself must be well understood. Additionally, beyond precision optical measurements, recent work has shown that very low phase noise microwave signals may also be extracted from OFCs. The limits to the combs' performance in the optical and microwave domains is a matter of current inquiry. In my talk, I will discuss noise properties associated with signals extracted from OFCs. In the case of the combs' optical signals, I will discuss the scaling of phase noise of OFCs across 240 nanometers of the combs' optical bandwidth. In the case of the combs microwave signals, I will discuss efforts currently underway to achieve very low phase noise signals, in the x-band range of 10 GHz, which exceed the performance of state-of-the-art microwave sources. Finally, I will discuss the integration of the comb with the terahertz domain to generate broadly tunable and narrow linewidth radiation in the terahertz regime.