The laser absolute wavelength standard problem

Hall, John L.

doi:10.1109/jqe.1968.1074946

Cited by 49 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…In addition to reducing the Lamb-dip contrast, significant frequency shifts were generated. [17] One could not arbitrarily reduce the gas pressure since the discharge pumping mechanism actually populated a metastable He* level, and collisions were needed to transfer this excitation to the neon atom component in the discharge. So even though the wavelength of the laser's characteristic coherent light was more-readily measurable than the incoherent light from the krypton discharge lamp (the existing wavelength standard), in fact the lasers' pressure shifts were simply too large to accept.…”

Section: The Relative High Power Of Lasers Empowers Nonlinear Spectromentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining and Measuring Optical Frequencies: The Optical Clock Opportunity— And More (Nobel Lecture)

Hall

2006

ChemPhysChem

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Four long-running currents in laser technology met and merged in 1999-2000. Two of these were the quest toward a stable repetitive sequence of ever-shorter optical pulses and, on the other hand, the quest for the most time-stable, unvarying optical frequency possible. The marriage of ultrafast- and ultrastable lasers was brokered mainly by two international teams and became exciting when a special "designer" microstructure optical fiber was shown to be nonlinear enough to produce "white light" from the femtosecond laser pulses, such that the output spectrum embraced a full optical octave. Then, for the first time, one could realize an optical frequency interval equal to the comb's lowest frequency, and count out this interval as a multiple of the repetition rate of the femtosecond pulse laser. This "gear-box" connection between the radiofrequency standard and any/all optical frequency standards came just as sensitivity-enhancing ideas were maturing. The four-way union empowered an explosion of accurate frequency measurement results in the standards field and prepared the way for refined tests of some of our cherished physical principles, such as the time-stability of some of the basic numbers in physics (e.g. the "fine-structure" constant, the speed of light, certain atomic mass ratios), and the equivalence of time-keeping by clocks based on different physics. The stable laser technology also allows time-synchronization between two independent femtosecond lasers so exact they can be made to appear as if the source were a single laser. By improving pump-probe experiments, one important application will be in bond-specific spatial scanning of biological samples. This next decade in optical physics should be a blast!

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Section: The Relative High Power Of Lasers Empowers Nonlinear Spectromentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining and Measuring Optical Frequencies: The Optical Clock Opportunity— And More (Nobel Lecture)

Hall

2006

ChemPhysChem

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“…Then, almost immediately, separation of the optical-gain and optical-frequency reference functions led to nice molecular absorber resonances a thousand-fold narrower than their Doppler linewidths. A then-contemporary view of this epoch is available [1]. Over the next 30 years, numerous experimental tricks have been introduced to improve , resolution, accuracy of modulation, utilization of high-frequency modulation, etc., leading to improved performance as optical frequency standards.…”

Section: A Background and Scientific Interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrasensitive spectroscopy, the ultrastable lasers, the ultrafast lasers, and the seriously nonlinear fiber: a new alliance for physics and metrology

Hall

Diddams

et al. 2001

IEEE J. Quantum Electron.

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We now appreciate the fruit of decades of development in the independent fields of ultrasensitive spectroscopy, ultrastable lasers, ultrafast lasers, and nonlinear optics. But a new feature of the past two or three years is the explosion of interconnectedness between these fields, opening remarkable and unexpected progress in each, due to advances in the other fields. For brevity, we here focus mainly on the new possibilities in the field of optical frequency measurement.

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“…The frequency stabilities were 3 ϫ 10 Ϫ13 and 6.2 ϫ 10 Ϫ14 for 1-and 30-s sampling times, respectively. The resettability 16,17 was less than 2 kHz during one week, and the frequency offset was ϳ7 kHz. Our results show that the iodine-stabilized green He-Ne laser is superior to the conventional iodine-stabilized 633-nm He-Ne laser.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Wavelength standard at 543 nm and the corresponding ^127I_2 hyperfine transitions

Cheng

Shy

2001

J. Opt. Soc. Am. B

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We have constructed two compact iodine-stabilized 543-nm He-Ne lasers and studied the corresponding 127 I 2 hyperfine transitions. The frequency stability of our lasers reaches 6.2 ϫ 10 Ϫ14 during a 30-s sampling time; and the resettability is less than 2 kHz. The frequency intervals of the hyperfine peaks were measured and the corresponding hyperfine constants were determined. The line width of each main line was measured. The properties of the b 10 line, which is suggested to serve as the wavelength standard at 543 nm, were investigated in detail for what is to our knowledge the first time.

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The laser absolute wavelength standard problem

Cited by 49 publications

References 20 publications

Defining and Measuring Optical Frequencies: The Optical Clock Opportunity— And More (Nobel Lecture)

Defining and Measuring Optical Frequencies: The Optical Clock Opportunity— And More (Nobel Lecture)

Ultrasensitive spectroscopy, the ultrastable lasers, the ultrafast lasers, and the seriously nonlinear fiber: a new alliance for physics and metrology

Wavelength standard at 543 nm and the corresponding ^127I_2 hyperfine transitions

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