Latest Frequency comb Stories
Like many new measurement tools, the laser frequency comb seemed at first a curiosity but has found more practical uses than originally imagined. The technique for making extraordinarily precise measurements of frequency has now moved beyond physics and optics to advance biomedicine by helping researchers evaluate a novel instrument that kills harmful bacteria without the use of liquid chemicals or high temperatures. Generated by ultrafast lasers, frequency combs precisely measure...
In future, optical fibers could connect all optical atomic clocks within Europe – a milestone for various users of optical frequencies in research and industry Optical atomic clocks measure time with unprecedented accuracy. However, it is the ability to compare clocks with one another that makes them applicable for high-precision tests in fundamental theory, from cosmology all the way to quantum physics. A clock comparison, i.e. a comparison of their optical frequencies, proved to be...
Ultrafast lasers, lasers that emit light pulses that are as short as a few femtoseconds, have enabled a wide-range of fundamental science and applications over the past two decades. To highlight recent state-of-the-art developments in femtosecond lasers, the Optical Society (OSA) today published a series of papers as part of an upcoming special Focus Issue on Modular Ultrafast Lasers in its open-access journal Optics Express. The issue is organized and edited by Wilson Sibbett and Tom Brown...
Peter Suciu for RedOrbit.com While those Verizon and AT&T commercials may claim that the respective carrier has the “fastest” network for mobile phones, new communications technology could make today’s 3G and 4G networks look as antiquated as the telegram. The whole gigahertz frequency could be made obsolete as a team of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh look to develop a terahertz frequency that could provide a means of transmitting data thousands of times faster....
If there is life on other planets, a laser frequency comb developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may help find it. Such a comb—a tool for precisely measuring frequencies, or colors, of light—has for the first time been used to calibrate measurements of starlight from stars other than the Sun. The good results suggest combs will eventually fulfill their potential to boost the search for Earth-like planets to a new level. As described in Optics...
Physicists at JILA have created the first "frequency comb" in the extreme ultraviolet band of the spectrum, high-energy light less than 100 nanometers (nm) in wavelength. Laser-generated frequency combs are the most accurate method available for precisely measuring frequencies, or colors, of light. In reaching the new band of the spectrum, the JILA experiments demonstrated for the first time a very fine mini-comb-like structure within each subunit, or harmonic, of the larger comb, drastically...
Laser frequency combs—extraordinarily precise tools for measuring frequencies (or colors) of light—have helped propel advances in timekeeping, trace gas detection and related physics research to new heights in the past decade. While typical lasers operate at only a single or handful of frequencies, laser frequency combs operate simultaneously at many frequencies, approaching a million for some combs. These combs have very fine, evenly spaced "teeth," each a specific frequency, which can...
Researchers at Purdue University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created a device small enough to fit on a computer chip that converts continuous laser light into numerous ultrashort pulses, a technology that might have applications in more advanced sensors, communications systems and laboratory instruments. "These pulses repeat at very high rates, corresponding to hundreds of billions of pulses per second," said Andrew Weiner, the Scifres Family...
By combining advanced laser technologies in a new way, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have generated microwave signals that are more pure and stable than those from conventional electronic sources. The apparatus could improve signal stability and resolution in radar, communications and navigation systems, and certain types of atomic clocks.Described in Nature Photonics,* NIST's low-noise apparatus is a new application of optical frequency combs, tools...
Purity of ingredients is a constant concern for the semiconductor industry, because a mere trace of contaminants can damage or ruin tiny devices. In a step toward solving a long-standing problem in semiconductor manufacturing, scientists at JILA and collaborators have used their unique version of a "fine-toothed comb" to detect minute traces of contaminant molecules in the arsine gas used to make a variety of photonics devices.JILA is a joint institute of the National Institute of...
