The art of illumination

Liesbeth Venema

Nature, 2007, vol. 450, issue 7173, 1175-1175

Abstract: A fine-tooth comb Optical frequency 'combs' are light sources that emit at discrete, equally spaced frequencies, so the spectrum has a characteristic comb-like appearance. Frequency combs have revolutionized the fields of spectroscopy and metrology: clocks using the technology now beat atomic clocks, such as the current caesium standard, for accuracy. But the instrumentation required to generate a frequency comb is cumbersome and complex, usually involving a bulky femtosecond laser. Del'Haye et al. have now developed a radically different approach to comb generation: a tiny disc-like resonator structure on a silicon chip is simply illuminated by a conventional laser diode. The resulting interaction between the laser light and the resonator gives rise to an optical frequency comb emitting in the infrared. The simplicity of the scheme — and the prospects of a reduction in size, cost and power — should enhance the utility of optical frequency combs in a broad number of fields.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1038/4501175a

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