title: Compact, Ti:sapphire-based, methane-stabilized optical molecular frequency comb and clock.
abstract: A compact optical clock and frequency comb system is presented, based on a 1 GHz octave-spanning Ti:sapphire laser referenced to the F2(2)(P(7),v3) optical transition in methane at 3.39 microm. The reference methane transition is accessed by a stabilized HeNe laser in a compact transportable format. The output from the octave-spanning Ti:sapphire laser is used to generate a mid-IR comb at the reference wavelength 3.39 microm. Direct comparison of the stabilized optical frequency comb with an ultralow expansion glass cavity-stabilized diode laser at 674 nm shows an Allan deviation of the frequency comb of 3x10(-14) in 20 s.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. andrew_b@mit.edu
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Benedick
authors.forename: Dmitry
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tyurikov
authors.forename: Mikhail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gubin
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shewmon
authors.forename: Issac
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.forename: Franz X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Kärtner