Method and device for generating radiation with stabilized frequency
AssigneeMax-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Forderung der Wissenschaften e.V.
InventorsRonald Holzwarth, Theodor W. Hänsch
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Abstract
A method for generating radiation with stabilized frequency, comprises the steps of providing laser light pulses with a repetition frequency fR, said pulses comprising a plurality of N frequency components fn with fn=n fR+f0, wherein f0 represents an offset frequency with n=1 , . . . , N, said frequency components forming a comb with first and second different frequency portions, and generating a primary light output with at least one output frequency component corresponding to the difference of frequencies of said first and second frequency portions.
Claims21
Method for generating radiation with stabilized frequency, comprising the steps of:
- providing laser light pulses with a repetition frequency fR, said pulses being generated with a mode-locked laser pulse generator and comprising a plurality of N frequency components fn with fn=n *fR+fO, wherein fO represents an offset frequency, said frequency components forming a comb with first and second different frequency portions fn,1=n1*fR+fO and fn,2=n2*fR+fO, respectively, with n, n1, n2=1, . . . , N, wherein each frequency component of said first and second frequency portions contains said offset frequency fO, and
- generating a primary light output with a non-linear optical component generating a plurality of frequency components fm,out=n1 *fR+fO−(n2*fR+fO)=(n1−n2)*fR corresponding to the difference of frequencies of said first and second frequency portions, said plurality of frequency components forming an output frequency comb, wherein said offset frequency is eliminated from said frequency output comb.
Radiation source device for generating radiation with stabilized frequency, comprising:
- a mode-locked laser pulse generator for generating pulses with a repetition frequency fR, said pulses comprising a plurality of N frequency components fn with fO=n*fR+fO, wherein fO represents an offset frequency, said frequency components forming a comb with first and second different frequency portions fn,1=n1*fR+fO and fn,2=n2*fR+fO, respectively, with n, n1, n2=1, . . . , N, wherein each frequency component of said first and second frequency portions contains said offset frequency fO, and
- a difference frequency generator comprising a non-linear optical component generating a primary light output with a plurality of frequency component fm,=n1*fR+fO−(n2*fR+fO) =(n1−n2)*fR corresponding to the difference of frequencies of said first and second frequency portions, said plurality of frequency components forming output frequency comb, wherein said offset frequency is eliminated from said output frequency comb.
Radiation source device according to claim 11, further comprising:
- a frequency filtering device for transmitting radiation comprising a first filtered portion of said pulses in a first frequency interval δf1, and a second filtered portion of said pulses in a second frequency interval δf2, according to said first and second frequency portions, respectively, each of said filtered portions comprising at least one frequency component fn,1, fn,2, and
- a time delay line for adapting the time overlap said first and second filtered portions before said difference frequency generator.
A radiation source comprising:
- a laser pulse generator;
- first and second beam splitters;
- first and second optical filters;
- and,
- difference frequency generator,
- wherein each pulse produced by the laser pulse generator comprises at least first and second frequency components, said first and second frequency components being separated by the first beam splitter, the first frequency component being filtered by the first optical filter to produce a first filtered frequency component, and the second frequency component being filtered by the second optical filter to produce a second filtered frequency component, and
- wherein the first and second filtered frequency components are recombined by the second beam splitter to form a recombined pulse, each said recombined pulse being applied to the difference frequency generator to generate a primary light output.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.